i^ingg  anP  Ctueen-g  of  €ngIanD 

EDITED    BY 

ROBERT  S.  RAIT  M.A.  and  WILLIAM  PAGE  F.S.A. 


HENRY    VII 


BiMery  Walker.  Photo 

KING    HKNRV   VII 

1457— 15(W 

From  the  Picture  in  the  National  Portrait  GallTv,  painted  in   1505  by  an  unknowa 

Flemish  artist 


HENRY    VII 


BY  ^_A- 

GLADYS  TEMPERLEY 

FELLOW  OF  NEWNHAM  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE 

WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 
JAMES    T.    SHOTWELL 


ILLUSTRATED 


BOSTON  AND  NEV/  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

^be  Riterirfjlie  ^xtH  CambtiDge 

1914 


I 


.^^(y 

^o^ 


TV 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGF 

I.    EARLY    LIFE    OF    HENRY   VII.        ...  1 

II.    ENGLAND    AT    THE     ACCESSION    OF     HENRY 
VII.  —  SETTLEMENT    IN    THE     KINGDOM, 

1485-148T  23 

III.  FOREIGN    AFFAIRS,    1485-1492      ...         70 

IV.  PERKIN    WARBECK,   1491-1497     .  .  .       112 
"^  V.    COMMERCE   AND    INDUSTRY             .  .161 

VI.    FOREIGN    AFFAIRS,    1497-1503  :     MARRIAGE 

ALLIANCES      .  .  .  .  .  .196 

VII.    LEGISLATION  AND    FINANCE THE    FOUNDA- 
TION   OF   THE   TUDOR   DESPOTISM  .  .       240 
>^VIII.    IRELAND — THE  RENAISSANCE — VOYAGES  OF 

DISCOVERY     ......       289 

IX.    LAST   YEARS,    1503-1509       ....       325 

^  X.    PERSONAL  :    IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN      .       374 


APPENDICES 

I.    ITINERARY   OF    HENRY    VII.    . 
II.    THE    STORY    OF    PERKIN   WARBECK 


411 
420 


ij4fJ78 


vi  CONTENTS 

APPENDICES  {continued) — 

PACK 

III.  THE   STAR    CHAMBER 423 

IV.  HENRY    VII.    AND    JUANA    OF    CASTILE       .             .  426 
V.    BIBLIOGRAPHY           ......  431 

INDEX     ........  437 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PORTRAIT    OF   KING   HENRY   VII.  .  frontispieCC 

( Frota  the  National  Portrait  Gallery) 

PAGE 

PLAN   OF   THE   BATTLE   OF   BOSWORTH 

FIELD facing  20 

PORTRAIT  OF  ELIZABETH  OF  YORK,  QUEEN 

CONSORT  OF  HENRY  VII.     .     .     .     „    52 

(From  the  National  Portrait  Gallery) 

PORTRAIT  OF  MARGARET  OF  YORK   .     .     ,,60 

{From  the  Society  of  Antiquaries) 

PORTRAIT   OF   PERKIN    WARBECK  .  .  „       112 

(From  the  National  Portrait  Gallery) 

PORTRAIT   OF   KING   HENRY   VII.  .  .  ,,       162 

{From  the  Soeietj  of  Antiquaries) 

COINAGE   OF   HENRY   VII „      190 

EFFIGY   OF   ELIZABETH    OF    YORK  .  .  „      236 

{In  Westminster  Abbey) 

PORTRAIT     OF     RICHARD     FOX,     BISHOP     OF 

WINCHESTER  „      248 

{From  the  National  Portrait  Gallery) 
vii 


viii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

GREAT   SEAL    OF   HENRY   VII.        .  .  .  facing   270 

EFFIGY   OF   KING   HENRY    VII.       .  .  .  „       372 

\In  Westmirister  Ahhey) 

PORTRAIT  OF  MARGARET  BEAUFORT,  COUN- 
TESS   OF    RICHMOND    AND    DERBY      .  .  ..       388 
(Prom,  the  Natiotuil  Portrait  GaUcry) 


INTRODUCTION^ 

A  HISTORY  of  England  through  the  biographies  of  her  kings  natu- 
rally suggests  something  vastly  different  from  the  contents  of  these 
volumes.  It  brings  up  visions  of  the  pageantry  of  courts  and  the 
pomp  and  circumstance  of  royalty.  It  recalls  those  well-worn  clas- 
sics of  an  earlier  generation  which  fed  our  youth  with  the  romance 
of  the  unreal  part  of  reality.  But  there  is  little  here  of  Miss  Strick- 
land or  the  mere  gossip  of  courtly  circles.  There  is  romance  still,  but 
its  charm  is  of  another  kind,  the  charm  of  discovery  mainly;  for  the 
theme  of  these  biographies  is  royalty  at  work  rather  than  on  dis- 
play. This  is  a  side  of  kingly  life  which  seldom  is  mentioned  in  the 
courtly  chronicle,  and  when  told  from  the  outside  is  too  likely  to 
come  from  unsympathetic  hands,  so  that  the  monarch  generally 
stands  out  in  our  histories  as  either  a  do-nothing  king  leading  a  life 
of  vast  self-indulgence,  or  as  a  meddler  with  a  bent  toward  tyranny. 
Both  pictures  are  false,  as  are  all  general  categories  in  the  portrayal 
of  life,  but  of  the  two  the  former  is  most  misleading.  Kings  have 
been  more  than  masters  of  idleness.  Few  careers  have  been  more 
strenuous  than  theirs.  One  can  pick  out  the  idle  kings  throughout 
the  centuries;  they  are  notorious  in  any  monarchy.  Whenever  the 
king  is  weak  the  fact  is  attested  before  the  whole  world,  either  by 
the  rise  of  a  great  vizier,  a  Richelieu  or  a  Walpole,  or  by  the  vicious 
intrigues  of  the  courtesan  and  the  anarchy  of  state  and  government. 
A  king  is  born  to  his  title;  but  he  must  work  to  make  the  title  real. 
The  court  of  Louis  XIV  was  the  model  to  Europe  for  the  display  of 
idleness,  and  yet  the  king  worked  secretly,  behind  the  scenes,  like 
any  impressario,  rising  early,  so  it  was  said,  for  the  transaction  of 
pressing  business  of  state  with  his  ministers,  and  then  retiring  for 
the  formal  ceremony  of  a  royal  levie,  so  that  he  might  pass  the  day 
with  the  becoming  semblance  of  a  roi  fainiant.  The  palace  of  his 
more  magnificent  successor  Napoleon  was  merelj'  a  workshop  fur- 
nished with  imperial  elegance.  Of  course  he,  as  an  adventurer,  had 
^  Copyright,  1914,  by  Honghtoo  Mifflin  Company. 


X  INTRODUCTION 

to  work  for  his  living;  but  the  cost  of  power  has  always  been  its 
constant  exercise,  and  no  legitimist  who  lays  it  by  can  rely  upon  the 
deeds  of  his  ancestors  to  secure  recognition  for  himself  in  the  page  of 
history. 

The  story  of  the  kings  at  work  is  novel.  The  result  is  a  new  ap- 
preciation both  of  the  kings  and  of  the  institution  of  royalty.  Take 
for  instance  Henry  VII.  What  a  colorless  figure  he  used  to  be  in 
the  older  histories !  His  victory  over  the  shrewd  Richard  III  was  a 
foregone  conclusion  to  those  who  knew  of  Gloucester  only  through 
the  plays  of  Shakespeare  or  the  haunting  juvenile  stories  of  the 
princes  murdered  in  the  tower.  His  marriage  with  the  Yorkist 
princess  placed  the  crown  easily  within  his  reach,  and  once  the  king- 
dom was  his,  he  developed  a  most  unlovely  character,  jealous  of  his 
wife  and  miserly  in  money  matters.  His  reign  was  presented  as  one 
of  practical  stagnation,  like  a  quiet  interval  before  the  stir  and 
movement  of  Henry  VIII.  Such  was  the  view  of  Henry  MI  so  long 
as  royalty  was  judged  by  the  superficial  standards  of  the  courtly  or 
constitutional  historian.  A  king  who  suppressed  retainers  and  led 
the  sober  life  of  a  hard-headed  practical  man,  cut  a  poor  figure,  con- 
sidering his  achievements,  in  the  story  of  England.  More  recently, 
however,  historical  research  has  gone  beneath  the  surface  and  re- 
vealed the  strong,  if  sober,  character  of  the  first  of  the  Tudors.  The 
unlovely  elements  are  still  there,  but  wc  realize  now  that  the  miserly 
hoarding  was  directed  towards  statesman-like  ends,  in  accordance 
with  the  ideas  of  his  time;  that  the  transformation  of  England  under 
his  nign  was  one  of  the  most  vital  changes  in  its  whole  history,  and 
that  the  strong  hand  of  the  monarch  kept  the  nation  on  the  lines 
of  a  national  policy  which  made  possible  the  great  age  of  Elizabeth. 
In  short,  historians  are  coming  to  recognize  in  this  stern,  unsympa- 
thetic and  apparently  timidly  conservative  king  a  telling  force  in 
the  creation  of  modern  England. 

But,  it  will  be  objected,  this  is  a  false  "interpretation"  of  history. 
An  attempt  to  read  the  story  of  a  nation's  evolution  through  the 
biographies  of  its  kings,  is  something  we  have  long  since  given  up. 
It  belongs  to  the  days  of  Carlyle's  hero  worship,  and,  farther  back, 
to  the  philosophy  of  a  Bossuet  and  the  foolish  talk  of  a  James  I  on 
the  divine  kingship.  This  biographical  survey  is  a  strange  enter- 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

prise  in  an  era  of  democracy  when  history  is  written  in  terms  of 
"the  sovereign  people,"  and  the  worid  of  business  arranges  the  fate 
of  nations  on  an  impersonal  basis.  Royalty  seems  to  us  a  shadow  or 
an  ornament  in  a  world  where  shadows  and  ornaments  count  for 
little.  The  occupant  of  a  throne  seems  to  us  —  in  theory  —  almost 
a  grotesque  character,  and  in  our  happy  confidence  in  the  efficiency 
of  republican  institutions,  those  of  us  who  have  not  married  into 
the  European  nobility  or  have  not  been  presented  at  court,  are 
properly  scornful  of  such  an  outworn  symbol  of  tyranny  as  kings  or 
queens.  And  as  our  histories  always  tend  to  reflect  our  major  inter- 
ests, we  have  been  remaking  the  story  of  an  undemocratic  past  to 
correspond  with  our  outlook  into  the  present.  In  the  latter  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century  when  the  mass  of  the  nation  was  winning  the 
victor^'  for  constitutional  government,  Stubbs  supplied  the  story  of 
that  framework  of  courts  and  parliament  which  was  the  nation's 
heritage,  and  Freeman  and  Green  traced  the  human  story  of  the 
nation  itself.  In  the  opening  of  the  twentieth  century  the  new 
democracy  has  come  to  that  self-consciousness  which  the  middle 
class  achieved  a  century  or  so  before,  and  now  it  is  looking  back  to 
the  history  of  village  laborers,  of  peasant  insurrections,  enclosures 
of  common  lands,  and  all  the  homely  and  intimate  detail  of  daily 
life.  The  movement,  just  setting  in,  is  of  vast  significance  and  mag- 
nificent possibilities.  No  one  to  whom  the  word  "history"  has 
any  real  meaning,  whose  imagination  stirs  at  its  suggestions  of  tales 
yet  untold  as  well  as  at  its  achievements  in  its  joint  field  of  art  and 
science,  can  fail  to  extend  a  welcome  to  the  new  histories  of  democ- 
racy, and  the  exploration  of  the  economics  and  industries  of  the 
past.  But  it  is  easy,  in  our  enthusiastic  approval  of  the  new  arrivals, 
to  lose  our  own  perspective,  and  to  imagine  that  the  obscure  paths 
of  social  movement  which  they  trace  in  distant  centuries  were  the 
only  roads  that  lead  to  modern  times.  In  short,  the  Zeitgeist  is 
upon  us;  the  spirit  of  our  time  distorts  the  view  of  any  other. 

There  is  something,  after  all,  in  heroes.  Carlyle's  gospel,  preached 
to  unheeding  ears,  had  more  truth  in  it  than  we  like  to  admit.  The 
strong  man,  or  the  man  who  holds  the  post  of  power,  is  more  than  a 
single  unit  in  the  great  multiples  of  society.  This  is  still  the  case  in 
our  democracies ;  we  know  it  and  are  glad  to  recognize  it  to  the  full 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

in  the  laudation  of  our  candidates  for  public  oflBce  a-j  well  as  in  our 
laws  to  curb  the  activity  of  unscrupulous  "captains  of  industry." 
Half  the  problems  of  democracy  are  due  to  the  need  of  vigilance 
against  the  possible  agression  of  those  "in  power."  It  was  in  this 
connection  that  Mr.  Bryce,  in  an  address  delivered  at  Washington  a 
few  years  ago,  uttered  a  significant  warning  to  political  theorists.' 
Speaking  from  the  full  experience  of  along  life  in  public  affairs,  he 
said  that  he  had  never  known  a  country  that  was  not  really  governed 
by  a  little  group  of  some  half-dozen  men,  adding,  though  in  guarded 
phrase,  that  few  people  even  in  a  democracy,  had  any  idea  of  how 
completely  this  small  group  of  men  were  dominating  the  country. 

If  such  is  the  case  in  a  democracy  and  in  a  country  of  general 
enlightenment,  how  much  more  has  it  been  true  of  all  the  past.  The 
pomp  of  royalty  is  not  something  merely  extraneous  to  society,  but 
the  outward  sign  of  its  most  definite  and  lasting  seat  of  power.  One 
does  not  need  to  go  back  to  anthropology,  and  follow  the  rich  fields 
of  scholarship  opened  up  by  Dr.  Frazer,*  as  he  traces  the  kingship 
back  to  its  priestly  and  then  its  divine  prototypes,  in  order  to  realize 
the  dominant  role  of  royalty  in  the  past.  For  the  king  has  been  war- 
rior as  well  as  priest,  and  has  laid  the  basis  for  the  national  state  by 
conquest  and  the  rule  of  the  sword.  So,  the  Conqueror  re-made 
England,  and  the  Capetians  welded  together  France.  It  would  be 
an  absurd  distortion  of  history  which  would  eliminate  these  master 
forces  from  its  processes  because  their  power  is  now  transferred  to 
other  hands.  A  history  of  the  past  with  the  kings  suppressed  would 
be  not  less  false  and  more  grotesque  than  one  in  which  the  kings 
alone  receive  the  credit  for  the  joint  work  of  king  and  people.  His- 
tory must  be  written  historically  and  not  as  a  pamphlet  to  justify 
the  present  by  the  past. 

We  are  accustomed  to  think  of  the  King  of  England  as  >>eing 
shorn  of  all  authority.  And  recent  events  in  the  English  Parliament 
tend  to  impress  this  view  still  more  upon  us.  But  in  the  theoretical 

^  The  presidential  address  of  the  American  Association  for  Political  Sci- 
ence, ChriBtinas,  1908.  This  remark  was  not  printed  in  the  text  of  the  speech 
aa  printed  in  tlie  Proceedings. 

^  Cf .  Lectures  on  the  Early  History  of  the  Kinship,  and  much  of  The  Oolden 
Sough. 


INTRODUCTION  riU 

powers  which  are  his  still,  one  may  catch  the  reflection  even  in  this 
present  age  of  the  vast  scope  of  his  office  in  the  centuries  when  the 
king  ruled  as  well  as  reigned.  It  may  be  fitting  to  sum  these  up  in 
the  words  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  written  to  present  to  American  readers 
some  idea  of  the  machinery  of  the  British  Constitution.  After  speak- 
ing of  the  functions  of  the  ministry,  Mr.  Gladstone  thus  summarizes 
the  position  of  the  Crown  in  the  nineteenth  century :  ^  — 

"The  sovereign  in  England  is  the  symbol  of  the  nation's  unity, 
and  the  apex  of  the  social  structure;  the  maker  (with  advice)  of  the 
laws;  the  supreme  governor  of  the  Church;  the  fountain  of  justice; 
the  sole  source  of  honor;  the  person  to  whom  all  military,  all  naval, 
all  civil  service  is  rendered.  The  sovereign  owns  very  large  proper- 
ties; receives  and  holds,  in  law,  the  entire  revenue  of  the  state;  ap- 
points and  dismisses  ministers;  makes  treaties;  pardons  crime,  or 
abates  its  punishment ;  wages  war,  or  concludes  peace;  summons  and 
dissolves  the  Parliament;  exercises  these  vast  powers  for  the  most 
part  without  any  specified  restraint  of  law;  and  yet  enjoys,  in 
regard  to  these  and  every  other  function,  an  absolute  immunity 
from  consequences.  There  is  no  provision  in  the  law  of  the  United 
Empire,  or  in  the  machinery  of  the  Constitution,  for  calling  the 
sovereign  to  account;  and  only  in  one  solitary  and  improbable  but 
perfectly  defined  case  —  that  of  his  submitting  to  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Pope —  is  he  deprived  by  statute  of  the  throne.  Setting  aside 
that  peculiar  exception,  the  offspring  of  a  necessitj'  still  freshly  felt 
when  it  was  made,  the  Constitution  might  seem  to  be  founded  on 
the  belief  of  a  real  infallibility  of  its  head.  Less,  at  any  rate,  cannot 
be  said  than  this.  Regal  right  has,  since  the  Revolution  of  1688, 
been  expressly  founded  upon  contract;  and  the  breach  of  that  con- 
tract destroys  the  title  to  the  allegiance  of  the  subject.  But  no  pro- 
vision, other  than  the  general  rule  of  hereditary  succession,  is  made 
to  meet  either  this  case  or  any  other  form  of  political  miscarriage  or 
misdeed.  It  seems  as  though  the  genius  of  the  nation  would  not 
stain  its  lips  by  so  much  as  the  mere  utterance  of  such  a  word;  nor 
can  we  put  this  state  of  facts  into  language  more  justly  than  by  say- 
ing that  the  Constitution  would  regard  the  default  of  the  monarch 

^  In  an  article  entitled  "  Kin  beyond  the  Sea,"  in  the  North  American 
Review,  vol.  cxxvii  (1878).  pp.  196. 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

with  his  heirs  as  the  chaos  of  the  state,  and  would  simply  trust  to 
the  inherent  energies  of  the  several  orders  of  society  for  its  legal 
reconstruction." 

This  is,  in  theory,  the  posntion  of  kingship  as  it  stands  at  present 
in  the  British  Constitution.  The  theory,  of  course,  is  nullified  by 
the  single  fact  that  Parliament  holds  the  power  of  the  purse  —  the 
final  sovereign  power  in  any  land.  But  the  theory  of  the  British 
Constitution  is  not  like  most  other  political  theories;  it  is  nota  cre- 
ation of  theorists  but  the  embodiment  of  history.  Every  power  of 
royalty  in  this  tremendous  total  was  once  exercised  by  English 
kings.  The  story  of  how  those  powers  were  won,  used  —  and  lost, 
is  more  than  the  incidental  side  of  history;  and,  since  democracy 
aspires  less  to  destroy  than  to  appropriate  the  attributes  of  sover- 
eignty, it  can  find  in  the  biographies  of  these  kings,  whose  power  it 
now  assumes,  a  chapter  of  its  own  adoptive  past! 

Of  the  powers  of  the  Crown  of  England,  only  a  shadow  is  left. 
But  the  kingship  itself  is  much  more  than  a  shadow.  Such  is  the 
force  of  long  tradition,  the  reverence  for  the  past,  the  love  of  pag- 
eantry and  —  not  least  —  the  pride  in  a  royal  and  imperial  name, 
that  the  king  still  remains,  in  spite  of  all  the  age-long  struggle 
against  his  claims,  the  living  sign  of  the  nation's  unity.  No  bald 
words  or  abstract  phrases  such  as  love  of  country,  liberty,  equal- 
ity, fraternity,  can  quite  match,  in  a  genuine  British  breast,  the 
appeal  to  loyalty  for  the  sovereign.  Kipling  has  given  expression 
to  this  feeling  with  especial  force,  and  however  much  a  lover  of 
peace  may  object  to  its  possibilities  of  insular  belligerency,  it  must 
be  reckoned  with  as  a  vital  element  in  the  maintenance  not  only  of 
the  Crown,  but  of  the  empire  itself.  For,  whether  it  is  the  "Widow 
at  Windsor  "or  the  "Sailor  King,"  the  British  soldier  and  sailor  will 
give  their  lives  as  readily  now  for  the  exalted  head  of  the  empire,  as 
when  the  monarch  really  ruled.  It  is  not  power  but  sentiment 
which  holds  the  allegiance  of  the  nation  to-day;  but  the  sentiment 
thrills  with  the  sense  of  all  the  glory  of  England's  past  and  with  the 
common  consciousness  of  a  world-empire  concentrating  its  attention 
upon  the  symbol  of  its  own  greatness. 

J.  T.  Shotwell. 


\ 


HENRY    VII 


HENRY     VII 

CHAPTER    I 

EARLY    LIFE 

Henry  Tudor  was  born  at  Pembroke  Castle  on 
28th  January  1456-7.  England  was  still  torn  by  the 
last  violent  years  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  and 
Margaret,  widow  of  Edmund  Tudor,  was  living  at 
Pembroke  Castle  under  the  protection  of  her  brother- 
in-law,  Jasper,  Earl  of  Pembroke.  There,  three 
months  after  her  husband's  death,  she  gave  birth 
to  her  son  Henry,  Earl  of  Richmond,  afterwards 
Henry  VII.  A  small  room  in  the  east  end  of  a  tower 
on  the  northern  wall  of  the  fortress,  which  in  Leland's 
time  contained  a  "  chymmeney  new  made  with  the 
arms  and  badges  of  King  Henry  VII.,"  is  still  shown 
as  Henry's  birthplace.^     The  babe  came  of  an  illus- 

1  The  exact  date  of  Henry's  birth  is  not  beyond  dispute  owing 
to  the  contradictory  statements  made  by  Bernard  ^Indr^,  Henry's 
biographer.  He  states  that  he  was  born  on  "  Februarii  kalend. 
decimo  septimo "  (16th  January),  on  the  feast  of  St.  Agnes  the 
Second  (28th  January):  Memorials  of  Henry  VII.  (Rolls  Ser.); 
Andr6,  Vita,  p.  12.  Tlie  latter  date  has  been  generally  adopted, 
as  Andre  was  probably  more  familiar  with  the  saints'  days  than 
with  the  Roman  calendar.  Many  years  after,  Henry's  mother, 
\vriting  "  on  the  day  of  Seynt  Anne's,"  referred  to  it  a,s  the  day 
of  his  birth,  but  this  difficulty  has  been  overcome  by  the  sug- 
gestion that  she  wrote  "  Seynt  Anne's  "  inadvertently  for  "  St. 
Agnes'."  W.  Busch,  England  under  the  Tudora  (Eng.  trans.), 
p.  220 ;  Letters  and  Papers  of  Richard  III.  and  Henry  VII.  (ed. 
Gairdner)  (Rolls  Ser.),  i.  422-3. 

A 


2  HENRY     VII  [1457-66 

trious  race.  His  mother  was  of  the  House  of 
Plantagenet,  by  descent  from  John  of  Gaunt  through 
his  union  with  Katherine  Swynford,  whose  descend- 
ants the  Beauforts  had  been  declared  legitimate  by 
Act  of  Parliament  in  the  reign  of  Richard  II.  On 
the  death  of  her  father,  the  Duke  of  Somerset,  in 
1444',  she  had  inherited  a  share  in  the  vast  lands  of 
the  Beauforts.  She  had  married  Edmund  Tudor  at 
a  very  early  age,  and  at  the  time  of  her  son's  birth 
was  not  quite  fourteen  years  old.  Edmund,  Earl 
of  Richmond,  traced  his  descent,  on  his  father's 
side,  back  to  Cadwaljader  and  the  ancient  kings  of 
Britain,  and  through  his  mother  Katherine,  widow  of 
Henry  V.,  was  allied  to  the  ro^^al  blood  of  France. 
The  young  Earl  of  Richmond  inherited,  therefore,  a 
threefold  claim  to  royal  descent.^ 

Henry's  fii-st  years  were  spent  at  Pembroke  Castle 
under  his  uncle's  care.  Before  he  was  four  years  old 
his  mother  had  married,  as  her  second  husband, 
Henry,  Lord  Stafford,  a  younger  son  of  the  Duke 
of  Buckingham.  At  the  accession  of  Edward  IV., 
Henry  Tudor  was  attainted,  the  honour  of  Richmond 
being  granted  to  the  king's  brother  George,  Duke  of 
Clarence.  The  Earl  of  Pembroke  was  attainted  at 
the  same  time,  but  in  spite  of  this  the  boy  remained 
for  a  while  in  safety  at  Pembroke  Castle,  which  stood 
for  the  House  of  Lancaster  long  after  the  rest  of 
England  had  submitted  to  Edward  IV.,  and,  on  its 
fall,  was  transferred  to  Harlech  Castle.  His  education 
was  begun  by  Andreas  Scotus,  and  Hasely,  Dean  of 
Warwick.     Owing  to  his  delicacy  he  was  taken  about 

*  Henry's  shield  bore  the  arms  of  France  and  England  quarterly, 
within  a  border  a/.ure,  charged  alternately  with  fleiirs-de-lys  and 
martlets  or,  his  father  having  abandoned  the  old  arms  of  Tudor. 


1466-71]  EARLY    LIFE  3 

from  place  to  place  for  change  of  air,  but  Bernard 
Andre  later  declared,  in  his  courtly  way,  that  the 
boy  showed  himself  remarkably  quick  and  brilliant. ^ 
This  comparatively  peaceful  time  was  interrupted  by 
the  capture  of  Harlech  Castle  by  William,  Lord 
Herbert,  in  1466.  Henry  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
victor,  who  was  rewarded  with  the  title  of  the  Earl 
of  Pembroke  and  given  the  wardship  of  the  young 
Earl  of  Richmond.  He  intended  to  marry  the  latter 
to  his  daughter  Maud,  but  a  year  later  he  was  killed 
at  Banbury.  A  brief  gleam  of  Lancastrian  success 
followed.  Richmond  was  restored  to  the  keeping  of 
the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  who  was  one  of  the  first  to 
welcome  Henry  VI.  at  his  restoration.  He  presented 
his  young  kinsman  to  the  king,  this  being  the  occasion 
of  the  frequently  repeated  though  probably  apocryphal 
prophecy  concerning  the  boy's  future,  which  appears 
in  Henry  VI. : — 

"  His  looks  are  full  of  peaceful  majesty. 
His  head  by  nature  framed  to  wear  a  crown, 
His  hand  to  wield  a  sceptre,  and  himself 
Likely  in  time  to  bless  a  regal  throne."  ^ 

According  to  Bernard  Andre,  the  king  advised 
that  the  boy  should  be  sent  abroad  to  escape  the 
malice  of  his  enemies.  The  defeat  of  the  Lancastrians 
at  the  battle  of  Tewkesbury  in  1471,  followed  by  the 
deaths  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  of  Henry  VI., 
made  the  Lancastrian  cause  seem  hopeless.  Even 
Wales  was  no  longer  safe.  Earl  Jasper,  at  the  request 
of  the  boy's  mother,  embarked  with  his  nephew  on 
a  vessel  bound  for  France. '    The  ship  was  driven  out 

^  Andre  said  he  had  heard  this  directly  from  Scotus.      Vita,  p.  13. 
a  Henry  VI.,  Part  III.,  Act  iv.,  Sc.  6;   Vita,  p.  14. 


4  HENRY    VII  [1471-83 

of  its  course  by  storms,  and  the  fugitives  were  landed 
on  the  coast  of  Brittany,  which  was  then  ruled  by 
Duke  Francis.  He  received  them  hospitably,  policy 
suggesting  that  he  had  in  his  hands  a  possible  means 
of  buying  the  alliance  of  England  against  his  threaten- 
ing neighbour  France.  Bernard  Andre,  however,  puts 
into  the  duke's  mouth  a  speech  which  suggests  that 
he  was  induced  to  help  by  the  boy's  appearance  and 
"  evident  good  qualities."  The  duke  certainly  made 
good  his  promises  of  protection,  and  Henry  remained 
in  safety  in  Brittany  in  spite  of  the  untiring  efforts 
of  Edward  IV.  to  obtain  his  surrender.  At  one  time 
he  was  in  very  great  danger.  An  embassy  from 
Edward  IV.  persuaded  Duke  Francis  that  the  king 
intended  to  marry  the  young  earl  to  one  of  his  own 
daughters.  He  surrendered  Henry  to  the  envoys, 
who  had  reached  St.  Malo,  en  route  for  England, 
when  they  were  detained  there  by  a  force  sent  by 
the  duke,  which  conveyed  Henry  into  sanctuary  and 
refused  to  give  him  up.  He  remained  in  Brittany 
more  closely  guarded  until  the  death  of  Edward  IV 
His  mother  remained  in  England,  and  in  1482,  on  the 
death  of  Henry  Stafford,  had  married,  as  her  third 
husband,  Thomas,  Lord  Stanley,  a  prominent  Yorkist 
and  the  steward  of  King  Edward's  household.  He 
gained  the  favour  of  Richard  III.,  and  his  wife  en- 
joyed a  position  of  security  and  was  even  prominent 
at  Court.^ 

Meanwhile  many  Lancastrian  exiles,  driven  from 
England  by  the  tyranny  of  Richard  III.,  began  to 
gather  round  Richmond,  who  was  released  from 
restraint    on    the    death    of    Edward    IV.     Even    in 

^  Slio  actually  held  the  queen's  train  at  the  coronation  of 
Richard  111. 


1483]  EARLY    LIFE  5 

England  a  party  was  being  formed  in  his  favour. 
The  Duke  of  Buckingham,  though  mainly  instru- 
mental in  gaining  the  throne  for  Richard  III.,  had 
retired  in  dissatisfaction  from  the  Court.  The  cause 
of  his  defection  is  uncertain,  but  it  may  well  have 
been  disgust  at  the  king's  violence,  working  upon 
thwarted  ambition.  Some  very  curious  stories  are 
told  of  the  way  in  which  he  was  induced  to  give  up 
his  design  of  winning  the  throne  for  himself  for  a 
plan  which  involved  the  elevation  of  the  exiled  earl. 
According  to  the  chroniclers.  Hall  and  Grafton,^  the 
duke  discussed  his  plans  fully  with  the  Lancastrian 
John  Morton,  Bishop  of  Ely,  then  a  prisoner  in  the 
duke's  custody,  who  cleverly  inflamed  his  discontent. 
The  story  goes  that  the  duke  had  quite  forgotten 
the  superior  claims  of  the  Countess  of  Richmond  and 
her  son,  until,  riding  between  Worcester  and  Bridg- 
north, he  met  the  former,  and  it  flashed  into  his 
mind  that  "  she  and  her  son,  the  Earl  of  Richmond, 
be  bothe  bulwarcke  and  portecolice  betwene  me  and 
the  gate  to  entre  into  the  majestic  royall  and  gettynge 
of  the  crowne."  The  Countess  of  Richmond  sounded 
Buckingham  with  regard  to  her  son's  claims,  and 
mentioned  the  fact  that  a  marriage  between  the  latter 
and  one  of  the  daughters  of  Edward  IV.  had  been 
proposed.  Though  the  duke  returned  an  evasive 
answer  at  the  time,  he  subsequently  told  Morton 
that  if  Richmond  bound  himself  to  such  a  marriage, 
he  would  be  prepared  to  help  him  to  the  crown  of 
England  as  heir  of  the  House  of  Lancaster.  This 
was  a  great  triumph.  By  the  advice  of  Morton, 
whose  influence  seems  to  have  settled  many  of  the 

^  Their  accounts  are  founded  on  the  Lije,  of  Richard  III.  by 
Sir  Thomas  More,  pp.  88-91. 


6  HENRY    VII  [1483 

details  of  the  conspiracy,  Richard  Bray  (steward  of 
the  household  to  the  Countess  of  Richmond)  was 
summoned  to  Wales,  and  despatched  thence  with 
orders  to  advise  his  mistress  to  gain  the  consent  of 
Elizabeth,  the  queen-dowager,  widow  of  Edward  IV., 
to  the  proposed  alliance,  and  then  to  communicate 
the  plan  to  Richmond  in  Brittany. 

Bray  started  on  his  mission  but  found  that  part 
of  the  scheme  was  already  accomplished,  the 
Countess  of  Richmond  having  approached  Elizabeth 
in  the  matter.^  The  queen-dowager  was  then  in 
sanctuary  at  Westminster  with  her  daughter,  sur- 
rounded by  the  king's  guards.  The  disappearance 
of  her  two  sons  was  still  a  mystery  and  their  tragic 
fate  unknown,  but  her  position  seemed  hopeless. 
Elizabeth  was  a  fickle,  wayward  woman,  ever  ready 
to  dabble  in  conspiracy,  and  the  countess's  emissary 
Lewis  easily  won  her  over  to  a  ])lan  which  offered  a 
hope  of  Richard's  overthrow.  They  were  about  to 
send  news  of  the  scheme  to  Brittany  when  Bray 
arrived  with  proofs  that  the  Duke  of  Buckingham 
was  considering  a  similar  plan.  Two  messengers, 
Hugh  Conway  and  Thomas  Ramme,  were  sent  to 
Henry  by  different  routes,  with  orders  to  acquaint 
him  with  the  conspiracy,  supply  him  with  funds,  and 
advise  him  to  return  as  soon  as  possible  and  land  in 
W'ales,  "  where  he  shoulde  not  doubte  to  fynde  both 
aide  and  comforte  and  frendes." 

The  messengers  arrived  in  Brittany  on  the  same 

*  On  this  point  Poljdor  Vergil  and  Hall  disagree.  The  account 
in  the  text  is  derived  from  the  former,  who,  as  a  contemporary, 
is  the  best  authority  for  the  reign.  Dr.  Busch  has  made  it  clear 
that  the  whole  scheme  originated  with  Margaret.  Pol.  Verg., 
Anglicce  UistoricB  Libri  (1555  edition),  lib.  xxvi.,  p.  630;  Hall, 
Chronicle  (ed.  1548),  p.  390  ;    Busch,  p.  321. 


1483]  EARLY    LIFE  7 

day,  and  the  news  they  brought  was  the  turning 
point  in  the  young  earl's  career.  His  ambition  had 
not  yet  turned  in  the  direction  of  the  EngHsh  crown, 
and  it  is  quite  possible  that  he  was  unaware  of  the 
strength  of  his  hereditary  title.  ^  He  was  in  great 
favour  with  the  Duke  of  Brittany,  and  there  were 
rumours  of  negotiations  for  his  marriage  with  the 
duke's  daughter  and  heiress  Anne.  Though  the 
duke  was  reluctant  to  defy  Richard  III.  openly,  he 
constantly  evaded  his  requests  for  the  earl's  surrender. 
Richard's  ambassador  Hutton  reached  Brittany  in 
the  summer  of  1483,  and  in  August  the  duke  sent  a 
diplomatic  answer,  in  which  he  mentioned  that  Louis 
XI.  of  France  was  also  trying  to  get  hold  of  Richmond. 
The  project  for  Henry's  marriage  with  Anne  of  Brit- 
tany, however,  was  abandoned  when  Henry  heard  of 
the  brilliant  prospect  open  to  him  if  he  married  Eliza- 
beth of  York.  On  the  24th  of  September,  Bucking- 
ham wrote  to  Richmond  announcing  that  the  18th  of 
October  was  the  date  fixed  upon  for  a  joint  movement. 
Richmond's  landing  in  Wales  was  to  coincide  with 
risings  in  all  the  southern  counties  from  Kent  to 
Devon.  Henry  matured  his  plans,  and  succeeded 
in  obtaining  help  from  Duke  Francis,  who  seems  to 
have  had  great  faith  in  the  success  of  the  conspiracy. 
Unfortunately  in  England  things  were  mo\ing  too 
fast.  Popular  excitement,  which  may  have  been 
due  to  the  murder  of  the  princes  in  the  Tower  be- 
coming known  about  this  date,'-  led  to  a  premature 

1  He  was  apparently  in  ignorance  of  a  fact,  well  known  to 
Buckingham,  that  the  words  in  the  Act  of  Henrj-  IV.  barring  the 
claim  of  the  Beauforts  to  the  throne  were  an  interpolation  not  fomid 
in  the  original  Act  of  Richsird  II.  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii. ,  Intro,  xxx. 
See  below,  p.  29. 

*  Buckingham  was  probably  aware  of  it  long  before. 


8  HENRY    VII  [1483 

rising  in  Kent  early  in  October,  the  news  of  which 
had  reached  Richard  by  the  11th  of  the  month. 
Richard  does  not  seem  to  have  suspected  Buckingham 
and  was  taken  completely  by  surprise,  but  his  measures 
were  prompt  and  effective.  On  15th  October  a 
proclamation  was  issued  against  Buckingham,  and 
troops  were  immediately  raised.  Three  days  later, 
according  to  the  plan,  Richmond's  adherents  in  the 
southern  counties  rose,  and  on  the  same  day  Bucking- 
ham raised  his  standard  at  Brecknock.  But  the 
disaffection  of  some  of  the  Welsh  leaders,  a  violent 
storm  which,  by  making  the  Severn  impassable,  pre- 
vented a  junction  with  Henry's  Devonshire  supporters, 
and  the  prompt  action  of  the  king  sealed  the  fate  of 
the  rising.  Many  of  the  Welshmen  deserted  ;  Bucking- 
ham fled  from  his  troops,  but  was  betrayed  to  King 
Richard  ^  and  beheaded  at  Salisbury  on  November  2nd. 
With  him  perished  the  hopes  of  the  rising. 

Meanwhile  Richmond,  by  the  help  of  Duke  Francis, 
had  collected  a  fleet  of  fifteen  ships  and  5000  mer- 
cenaries -  and  embarked  on  12th  October.  Dis- 
persed by  a  storm,  most  of  the  ships  were  driven  back 
upon  the  coast  of  Brittany.  Only  Richmond's  ship 
and  one  other  crossed  the  Channel.  Finding  the 
coast  at  Poole  well  guarded,  he  sailed  westward  to 
Plymouth.  But  Devon  and  Cornwall  were  in  arms 
against  him  ;  he  had  to  give  up  hope  of  landing,  and 
set  sail  for  Normandy.  In  spite  of  the  failure  of  his 
enterprise,   he   obtained   the   passport   he   asked   for 

1  Hall  in  his  Chronicle  (p.  395)  tells  a  quaint  story  of  the  horrible 
fat©  that  punished  the  traitor  and  all  his  children  with  mewiness, 
leprosy,  deformity,  and  violent  death. 

*  Hall  gives  the  number  as  forty  ships  {Chron.,  p.  395),  but 
Polydor  Vergil,  the  earlier  authority,  states  that  there  were  fifteen 
only.     {Hiat.  Ang.,  p.  553.) 


1483-4]  EARLY    LIFE  9 

from  the  young  king  Charles  VIII. ,  who  also  pro- 
vided him  with  money.  He  stayed  for  a  short  time 
in  Normandy,  passing  thence  to  Brittany,  which  he 
reached  by  30th  October.  There  he  heard  of  the 
failure  of  the  rising  and  of  Buckingham's  fate,  and 
was  joined  by  a  crowd  of  refugees  implicated  in  the 
rising,  among  whom  were  the  Marquis  of  Dorset,  the 
Bishops  of  Salisbury  and  Exeter,  John,  Lord  Wells, 
Sir  Edward  Courtenay,  Sir  Giles  Daubeney,  Sir  John 
Bourchier,  Sir  Richard  Edgecombe,  Sir  Edward 
Poynings,  and  many  others,  who  later  obtained  the 
reward  of  their  devotion.  Morton,  who  had  escaped 
from  Buckingham's  keeping  to  Flanders  just  before 
the  rising,  was  working  with  the  aid  of  Christopher 
Urswick  in  Henry's  interests,  "  sending  preuie  letters 
and  cloked  messengers  "  to  stir  up  hostility  to  King 
Richard.  Sir  Edward  Wood\'ile,  with  his  naval  ex- 
perience, had  been  a  member  of  Henry's  growing 
court  since  July  1483.  The  Duke  of  Brittany  still 
remained  his  friend  and  protector,  and  upon  his  return 
lent  him  10,000  golden  crowns.  The  scattered  fleet 
had  escaped  Richard's  warships  and  returned  again 
to  Brittany.  Henry  seems  to  have  resolved  upon  a 
further  attempt  without  delay,  and  summoned  a 
council  of  the  refugees  to  meet  at  Rennes.  The 
conspiracy  this  time  was  inaugurated  with  some 
pomp  and  ceremony  in  Rennes  Cathedral  on  Chi'ist- 
mas  Day,  1484.  Henry  was  now  the  only  leader  of 
the  opposition  to  Richard.  He  took  a  solemn  oath 
in  the  cathedral  that  he  would  marry  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Edward  IV.,  as  soon  as  he  obtained  the 
crown  of  England,  while  the  assembled  company 
swore  fealty  to  him  and  did  homage  "  as  though  he 
had  bene  that  tyme  the  cro^\Tied  kynge  and  anoynted 


10  HENRY   VII  [1484 

prince."  The  scheme  was  communicated  to  the  duke, 
who  lent  a  large  sum  of  money  for  arming  and  fitting 
out  ships,  on  the  security  of  Henry's  word  as  a  prince 
to  repay  it  as  soon  as  his  scheme  succeeded.^ 

In  England  the  failure  of  the  rising  had  brought 
punishment.  The  Earl  of  Richmond  and  many  of 
his  adherents  were  outlawed  by  the  Parliament  of 
January  1484,  but  in  consideration  of  the  support 
Lord  Stanley  had  given  to  the  king  against  his  step- 
son's adherents,  Henry's  mother  was  committed  to 
her  husband's  custody.  Worst  of  all,  King  Richard 
had  won  over  the  queen-dowager.  She  lacked  the 
courage  to  continue  faithful  to  a  design  which  had 
received  such  a  severe  check,  and  was  prevailed  upon 
by  Richard,  in  spite  of  the  grave  reasons  she  had  for 
doubting  him,  to  leave  sanctuary,  and  trust  herself 
and  her  daughters  to  him,  upon  his  taking  an  oath 
before  Parliament  to  protect  them.  Richard,  with 
Richmond's  destined  bride  in  his  power,  "  thought 
the  erle's  chiefe  combe  had  ben  clerely  cut,"  and 
troops  were  levied  and  arrangements  made  for  the 
defence  of  the  coast  against  the  threatened  invasion 
from  Brittany.  At  the  same  time  Richard  was  ill 
at  ease.  As  Vergil  put  it  he  was  "  continually  pricked 
and  tortured  by  perpetual  dread  of  the  earl's  return," 
and  he  redoubled  his  efforts  to  obtain  his  surrender. 
An  embassy  was  despatched  to  the  Duke  of  Brittany, 
promising  him  all   the  revenues   of    the   honour    of 

•  It  is  possible  that  this  refers  to  the  10,000  crowns  of  gold  which 
had  already  been  paid  to  Heruy  (Add.  MSS.,  Brit.  Mus.,  19,398, 
No.  16,  f.  33),  in  which  case  Hall's  narrative  is  in  error  in  the  order 
of  the  events  (Chron.,  pp.  396—7).  The  duke's  warrant  for  the  de- 
livery of  the  money  is  dated  22nd  November,  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII., 
i.  54.  Bernard  Andre's  account  of  this  period  (pp.  24,  25)  confuses 
Henry's  first  and  second  attempts  on  England. 


1484]  EARLY    LIFE  11 

Richmond,  and  of  the  estates  of  Richmond's  ad- 
herents, in  return  for  the  earl's  surrender.  Owing  to 
the  illness  of  the  duke,  who  was  already  showing 
signs  of  mental  infirmity,  the  envoys  were  received 
by  Pierre  Landois,  an  upstart  favourite.  He  resolved 
to  give  way  to  Richard's  demands,  not  (as  Polydor 
Vergil  is  careful  to  point  out)  through  any  enmity  to 
Hemy,  but  in  the  hope  of  gaining  powerful  support 
against  the  bitterly  hostile  nobles  of  Brittany.  Rich- 
mond, however,  was  warned  in  time.  Nothing  escaped 
Morton  in  his  exile  in  Flanders,  and  he  sent  Christo- 
pher Urswick  to  warn  Henry  and  persuade  him  to 
escape  into  France.  The  messenger  found  Richmond 
at  Vannes,  and  was  at  once  sent  on  into  France  to 
ask  for  passports  for  the  earl  and  his  followers.  The 
long-standing  jealousy  between  France  and  Brittany 
again  served  Henry's  turn.  As  soon  as  the  duke's 
policy  of  favouring  the  exile  had  been  abandoned  by 
Landois,  who,  with  less  faith  in  Henry's  star,  pre- 
ferred the  substantial  bribe  offered  by  the  king 
de  facto  to  the  problematical  gratitude  of  an  exiled 
pretender,  it  was  adopted  by  the  French  court.  In 
September  1484,  Henry  received  a  favourable  answer. 
It  only  remained,  then,  to  choose  the  time  and  means 
of  escape.  A  number  of  Henry's  followers,  under  the 
leadership  of  the  faithful  Earl  of  Pembroke,  rode 
towards  the  borders  of  Brittany,  announcing  that 
they  were  going  to  visit  the  invalid  duke,  and  the 
earl,  acting  on  Henry's  secret  instructions,  led  them 
over  the  border  into  France.  Henry  remained  in 
Vannes  for  a  couple  of  days,  and  then  started  for 
Anjou  with  five  servants,  suspicion  being  averted  by 
the  fact  that  500  Englishmen,  who  knew  nothing  of 
his  purpose,  remained  in   Vannes.     Five   miles  from 


12  HENRY    VII  [1484 

the  town  Henry  turned  into  a  wood,  "  and  clothinge 
himself e  in  the  symple  cote  of  his  poor  servaunte," 
followed  one  of  his  men  in  the  garb  of  a  page,  and 
rode  without  drawing  rein  towards  the  frontier.  He 
crossed  it  only  just  in  time.  The  horsemen  sent  in 
pursuit  by  Landois  were  barely  an  hour  behind  him,^ 
and  the  destinies  of  the  Tudor  dynasty  hung  by  a 
slender  thread.  Henry  made  his  way  to  the  French 
king's  court  and  received  a  promise  of  help.  A  pay- 
ment of  3000  livres  was  made  to  him  in  November. 

The  position  of  the  English  exiles  who  remained  in 
Vannes  was  very  critical,  but  fortunately  the  duke 
recovered  his  health  to  some  extent,  and  showed  his 
friendship  for  Henry  by  giving  Sir  Edward  Woodvile 
and  Sir  Edward  Poynings  permission  and  funds  to 
convey  them  to  rejoin  their  leader,  who  remained  at 
the  French  court,  accompanying  the  king  and  the 
regency  to  Paris. 

There  Richmond  was  joined  by  other  English  refugees 
who  had  fled  from  Richard's  tyranny,-  among  them 
being  Richard  Fox,  afterwards  one  of  Henry's  most 
trusted  ministers.  In  addition  the  Earl  of  Oxford, 
the  most  powerful  of  all  the  Lancastrian  nobles, 
who  had  been  ten  years  a  prisoner  in  the  castle  of 
Hammes  near  Calais,  won  over  its  captain,  James 
Blount,  to  Henry's  cause,  and  prevailed  on  him  to  set 
him  at  liberty  and  accompany  him  to  join  Richmond 

^  In  the  story  of  the  flight,  Hall's  narrative  is  practically  only 
a  translation  of  Vergil's.  Unfortunately  no  date  is  given,  but 
it  appears  from  the  records  of  the  dehberations  of  the  Regency 
that  the  flight  took  place  in  September  1484.  Proces-Verbaux 
de  seances  du  conseil  de  regence  de  roi  Charles  VIII.  (A. 
Bemier. ) 

'^  Hall  gives  a  vivid  account  of  the  excesses  to  which  Richard 
was  driven  by  "  the  wilde  worme  of  vengaunce  waveiynge  in 
his  hed."     Chron.,  p.  398. 


1484]  EARLY    LIFE  18 

in  Paris.  Oxford's  adherence  was  specially  welcome 
to  Henry,  the  earl  being  reliable  as  a  strong  Lan- 
castrian, not  a  discontented  Yorkist  driven  to  him 
by  hatred  of  Richard.  Hall,  following  Vergil,  ^\Tites 
of  Henry's  joy  at  the  earl's  arrival,  "  he  was 
ravyshed  with  an  incredibile  gladnes,  .  .  .  and  be- 
ganne  to  have  a  good  hope  of  happy  successe."  ^ 

About  this  time  the  queen-dowager  prevailed  on 
her  son,  the  Marquis  of  Dorset,  to  abandon  Richmond's 
cause,  partly  through  despair  of  the  earl's  success, 
and  "  partely  onerate  and  vanquesshed  -with  the  faire 
glosynge  promises  of  Kyng  Richard."  Fortunately 
for  Henry,  the  deserter,  who  had  stolen  out  of  Paris 
by  night,  was  stopped  and  brought  back.  Negotia- 
tions as  to  the  amount  of  support  to  be  given  by 
France  to  Richmond's  enterprise  were  still  going  on, 
but  were  complicated  and  delayed  by  the  disputes  in 
the  French  council  between  the  Regent  Anne  and 
the  opposition  party  led  b}'  the  Duke  of  Orleans. 
Henry  saw  that  further  delay  would  dishearten  his 
followers,  and  determined  to  make  another  attempt 
on  England.  It  was  at  this  time,  probably,  that  he 
wrote  the  letters  to  his  supporters  in  England  that 
have  been  preserved,  asking  for  their  support  of  his 
"  rightful  claim,  due  and  lineal  inheritance  of  the 
Crown  of  England."  He  alludes  to  Richard  as  "  that 
homicide  and  unnatural  t\Tant."  and  speaks  of  himself 
as  their  ''  poor,  exiled  friend."  The  letters  were  all 
signed  H.  R.^  He  borrowed  a  small  sum  of  money 
from  King  Charles  and  from  private  friends,  leaving  the 
treacherous  Dorset  and  Sir  Charles  Bourchier  at  Paris 
as  hostages  for  its  repayment,  and  left  for  Rouen, 
where  he  began  to  collect  a  fleet  to  sail  from  Harfleur. 

1  Pol.  Verg.,_556;  Hall,  405.  ^  Halliwell,  Letters,  i.  161. 


14  HENRY    VII  [1485 

But  Henry  had  not  come  to  the  end  of  his  diffi- 
culties. While  at  Harfleur  he  heard  of  news  which 
threatened  the  basis  of  his  enterprise.  In  March 
1485,  King  Richard  had  been  left  a  widower,  his 
wife  Anne  having  died  "either  of  grief  or  by 
poison,"  and  a  rumour  spread  rapidly  that  the  king 
intended  to  marry  his  niece,  Elizabeth  of  York.^  This 
news  reaching  Henry,  it  was  "  no  maruell,"  as  the 
chronicler  quaintly  puts  it,  "though  it  nypped  h}Tn 
at  the  verie  stomacke."  Further  disheartening  delay 
seemed  inevitable.  There  was  little  chance  of  obtain- 
ing Yorkist  support  in  England  if  there  was  no  hope 
of  Richmond  marrying  the  daughter  of  Edward  IV. 
It  seemed  madness  to  go  further  ^vithout  trying  to 
enlist  support  in  some  other  quarter.  According  to 
Vergil,  who  has  been  followed  by  Hall,  Henry  enter- 
tained a  plan  for  marrying  the  sister  of  Sir  Walter 
Herbert  and  so  gaining  his  alliance  and  influence 
in  Wales,  and  actually  sent  messengers  to  the  Earl 
of  Northumberland,  who  had  married  another  of 
Herbert's  sisters. ^  The  messengers,  however,  were 
intercepted  by  Richard's  spies. 

1  Elizabeth's  attitude  to  this  proposal,  which  is  of  some  interest 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  she  afterwards  became  Henry's  wife,  has 
been  much  discussed.  According  to  Polydor  Vergil  (pp.  557-8)  and 
the  clironiclers  (Hall.  p.  407),  she  was  \4olently  opposed  to  the  pro- 
posal, and  this  seems  to  be  the  soundest  \iew.  Sir  George  Buck, 
iiowever,  took  the  view  that  she  was  by  no  means  reluctant  {Hist, 
of  Rich.  III.),  founding  liis  assertion  on  a  letter  written  by  her  to 
the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  which  he  saw,  he  expressly  states,  in  her 
own  handwriting  among  the  Arundel  papers.  The  letter  was  never 
seen,  apparently,  by  any  one  else.  Stow,  Speed,  Holinshed,  and 
Ctimden,  Buck's  contemporaries,  are  silent  about  it.  For  a  full 
discussion  of  the  question,  see  Gairdner,  Richard  III.,  pp.  202—4. 

«  Dr.  Busch  does  not  think  this  plan  was  ever  seriously  contem- 
plated, but  regards  it  as  a  ruse  to  win  the  Welsh  aUiance.  There 
seems  to  be  no  evidence  on  which  to  form  a  decision.     Vergil's 


U85]  EARLY    LIFE  15 

Meanwhile,  the  king's  plan  of  marrying  Elizabeth 
had  raised  such  an  outcry  in  England  that  he  publicly 
disowned  it.  In  June  he  issued  a  proclamation  in 
which  Richmond  and  his  adherents  were  described 
as  "  open  murderers,  advoutrers,  and  extortioners," 
their  "captain.  .  .  .  Henry  Tydder,"  being  described 
as  of  bastard  blood  on  both  sides.  Richmond  was  still 
looking  between  hope  and  fear  at  the  English  coasts 
when  better  news  came  over.  A  Welsh  lawyer,  John 
Morgan,^  reported  that  Rhys  ap  Thomas  and  Sir 
John  Savage  were  ready  to  take  up  his  cause,  and 
that  money  had  been  collected  by  Reginald  Bray. 
Rhys  ap  Thomas  was  by  birth,  ability,  and  education 
the  leading  spirit  in  South  AVales.^  Wales,  it  appeared, 
would  be  on  the  side  of  the  Tudor  prince,  and  in 
Wales  he  was  urged  to  land. 

Any  risk  seemed  preferable  to  further  delay,  and 
on  August  1st  Richmond  sailed  from  Harfleur,  having 
with  him  about  2000  men,  including  a  French  con- 
tingent supplied  by  King  Charles,  and  commanded 
by  Philibert  de  Shaunde,  afterwards  Earl  of  Bath.^ 

words  are  a  little  indefiiiite,  but  it  may  be  that  Henry  -woiild  have 
married  any  woman  for  a  crown.  Busch,  op.  cit.,  p.  19  ;  Pol.  Verg., 
p.  559  ;  Hall.  p.  410. 

1  HaU  gives  tliis  name  as  Morgan  Kidwelly,  from  wliich  it  has 
been  inferred  that  Richard's  Attorney-General  betrayed  him. 
Vergil,  however,  gives  the  name  as  John  Morgan,  and  a  Welsh 
biographer  of  considerable  authority  calls  him  John  Morgan  of 
Ividwelly,  who  later  became  a  member  of  Henry's  council.  Ob- 
viously the  latter  Was  referred  to.  Hall,  p.  ilO  ;  Pol.  Verg., 
p.  559;  Cambrian  Register  (1795),  p.  96. 

*  "  All  the  kingdom  is  the  king's. 

Save  where  Rhys  doth  spread  his  wings." — Welsh  Ballad. 

3  A  long  speech,  said  to  have  been  deUvered  by  Henry  at  the 
embarkation,  is  reported  by  Andre  (pp.  25-28).  It  is  fuU  of  Bibhcal 
allusions  ;  Richmond  compares  himself  to  Moses  and  so  forth.  The 
authorship  is  obvious. 


16  HENRY    VII  [1485 

The  little  fleet  was  favoured  by  a  following  wind  and 
smooth  seas,  and  after  seven  days'  voyage  reached 
Milford  Haven  \s'ithout  opposition.  The  powerful 
fleet  got  together  by  Richard  lay  inactive  off  South- 
ampton. It  had  been  prophesied  that  Richmond 
would  land  at  Milford,  and  the  royal  fleet  guarded  a 
village  of  that  name  near  Christchurch.  Richmond 
and  his  followers  landed  near  the  village  of  Dale. 
The  earl,  we  are  told,  knelt  and  kissed  the  ground, 
and  after  beginning  the  psalm  Judica  me  Deiis  et 
decerne  causam  meam,  he  ordered  his  followers  to 
advance  in  the  name  of  God  and  of  St.  George.^  Just 
after  landing,  Henry  knighted  certain  of  his  followers, 
exercising  the  attributes  of  the  sovereignty  he 
claimed.-  At  sunrise  he  broke  up  his  camp  at 
Dale  and  advanced  to  Haverfordwest,  ten  miles 
away,  where  he  was  received  with  shouts  of  "  King 
Henry,  King  Henry  !  Down  ANith  the  bragging  white 
boar !  "  There  the  bad,  and  as  it  subsequently 
appeared  untrue,  news  was  brought  him  that  John 
Savage  and  other  prominent  Welshmen  had  made 
up  their  minds  to  support  King  Richard ;  but  the 
hopes  of  the  adventurer's  followers  were  revived  by 
a  message  of  welcome  from  the  towTi  of  Pembroke, 
Henry's  birthplace,  which  was  prepared  to  support 
its  "  natural  and  immediate  lord."  From  Haver- 
fordwest Richmond  marched  to  Cardigan,  where 
he  was  joined  by  Richard  Griffith  and  John  Morgan 
with  their  men,  and  then  rapidly  forward,  taking  the 

1  Ridland  Papers,  i.  7  ;  Fabyan,  Chron.,  p.  672.  Rhys  ap  Thomas, 
who  had  sworn  to  King  Richard  that  any  pretender  would  have 
"  to  make  entrance  over  his  beUie,"  is  said  to  have  kept  the  letter 
of  his  oath  by  throwing  himself  on  the  ground  and  allowing  Rich- 
mond to  step  over  him. 

2  Harl.  MSS.,  75,  fo.  3 Id. 


1485]  EARLY    LIFE  17 

places  garrisoned  against  him  without  difficulty.  He 
sent  messengers  to  his  mother,  to  her  husband.  Lord 
Stanley,  and  to  the  latter's  brother.  Sir  Gilbert  Talbot, 
announcing  his  intention  of  marching  on  London, 
and  asking  them  to  meet  him  with  all  the  force  they 
could  muster.  It  was  about  this  time,  probably,  that 
Henry  wTote  to  his  kinsman,  John  ap  Meredith,  the 
letter  that  has  been  preserved.  The  letter  is  headed 
"  By  the  King,"  and  is  written  throughout  in  terms 
of  sovereignty.  The  earl  speaks  of  his  "  loving  and 
true  subjects "  and  of  his  realm  of  England,  de- 
nouncing the  king  de  facto  as  "  the  odious  tyrant 
Richard,  late  Duke  of  Gloucester,  usurper  of  our  said 
right,"  and  commands  Meredith  to  join  him  with  all 
the  force  at  his  disposal,  "  as  ye  will  avoid  our  grievous 
displeasure  and  answer  it  at  your  peril."  Bold 
language  this  for  a  proscribed  exile  who  had  only  just 
landed,  and  who  had  but  a  handful  of  followers  to 
match  with  the  forces  of  a  kingdom,  but  its  boldness 
was  justified  by  success. 

The  attitude  of  the  Stanleys  was  of  the  utmost 
importance — one  had  all  Lancashire  at  his  back, 
the  other  ruled  North  Wales ;  but  they  preferred  not 
conmiitting  themselves  to  either  party  until  they 
saw  how  things  were  going.  They  were  ready,  it 
seemed,  to  betray  Richard,  in  spite  of  the  favour  he 
had  shown  them,  as  soon  as  Henry's  success  appeared 
probable.^  It  soon  appeared  that  Richmond  had 
done  well  in  setting  up  his  standard  in  Wales.  Welsh 
chieftains  rallied  to  support  the  descendant  of  Welsh 
kings  and  fight  under  the  red  dragon  of  Cadwallader ; 
Welsh  bards  and  minstrels  roused  local  feeling  in  his 

1  Their  timorous  policy  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  Stanley's 
son  and  heir.  Lord  Strange,  was  a  hostage  in  Richard's  hands. 

B 


18  HENRY    VII  [I486 

favour,  and  Welsh  prophecies  were  quoted  to  the  effect 
that  a  Welshman  of  the  line  of  Cadwallader  would 
one  day  be  King  of  England.^  The  invader  marched 
on  to  Shrewsbury,  taking  the  long  route  through 
Wales  to  gain  as  many  adherents  as  possible,-  and 
from  Shrewsbury  advanced  to  Newport.  The  force 
under  his  banner  was  growing  daily,  but  still  the 
Stanleys  hesitated.  Sir  William  Stanley  had  a  con- 
ference with  Richmond  at  Stafford,  but  nothing 
came  of  it.  Stanley  rejoined  his  troops,  and  Henry 
marched  on  unchecked  to  Lichfield. 

The  news  of  Richmond's  landing  did  not  reach 
King  Richard,  who  was  at  Nottingham,  until  11th 
August,  when  he  had  already  reached  Shrewsbury. 
The  king  appears  to  have  underestimated  the  danger, 
and  though  he  summoned  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  the 
Earls  of  Northumberland  and  Surrey,  and  the  Stanleys 
to  join  him  at  once,  he  did  not  move  until  he  heard 
of  Henry's  advance  to  Shi'ewsbury.  Lord  Stanley 
excused  himself  on  the  plea  of  illness,  and  Richard 
discovered  from  Lord  Strange  that  he  was  meditating 
treachery.  Sir  William  StarJey,  who  had  allowed 
Henry  to  march  through  Wales  unopposed,  was 
proclaimed  a  traitor.  In  August  Richard  mustered 
a  large  army  and  set  out  for  Leicester,  which  he 
reached  on  20th  August.  Henry  was  steadily  advanc- 
ing into  the  heart  of  England,  and  marching  from 

1  As  a  ballEnl  put  it — 

"  Riclunond,  sprung  from  British  race, 
From  out  this  land  the  boar  shall  chase." 

*  An  interesting  account  of  Henry's  march  through  Wales  is 
given  by  a  descendant  of  the  Rhys  family.  It  is,  however,  coloured 
by  partiahty  to  Rhys.  Cambrian  Register,  pp.  88-112.  See  also 
Gairdner,  Richard  III.,  pp.  274^280. 


1485]  EARLY    LIFE  19 

Lichfield  to  Tamworth  was  joined  by  Sir  Walter 
Hungerford,  Sir  Thomas  Bourchier,  and  other  de- 
serters, who  brought  the  force  summoned  by  Richard 
to  the  standard  of  his  rival.  Lord  Stanley's  attitude 
still  made  Henry  very  anxious.  He  lingered  in  the 
rear  of  the  array  "  as  a  man  disconsolate,  musyng 
and  ymagenynge  what  was  best  to  be  done,"  and  so 
lost  sight  of  his  rearguard  in  the  darkness,  and  fearing 
to  betray  himself  by  asking  his  way  stayed  at  a  small 
village  all  night.  He  returned  to  his  anxious  army 
at  daybreak,  rather  characteristically  explaining  his 
absence  as  caused,  "  not  by  mistake  but  by  design,  to 
receive  a  message  from  secret  allies."  A  little  later 
he  made  another  secret  journey  to  Atherstone,  where 
he  consulted  the  Stanleys,  and  received  assurances  of 
Lord  Stanley's  support. 

On  Sunday,  21st  August,  Richard  marched  out  of 
Leicester,  camped  near  the  village  of  Market  Bos- 
worth,  and  on  the  following  day  pitched  his  battle  in 
the  plain,  his  army  being  so  large  that  his  front  was 
extraordinarily  long.  The  vanguard  was  composed  of 
archers,  under  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  and  King  Richard, 
riding  on  a  white  charger,  followed  in  command  of  the 
main  body,  the  flower  of  his  army.  On  20th  August 
Henry's  force  had  been  encamped  at  Atherstone,  near 
Merevale  Abbey ;  on  the  following  day  he  marched  to 
White  Moors,  being  then  within  three  miles  of  the 
royal  army,  and  in  the  morning  led  out  his  men  and 
prepared  for  battle.^  The  Stanleys  still  seemed  to 
hold  the  key  of  the  situation.  The  men  under  Lord 
Stanley  were  drawn  up  midway  between  Richmond 
and   the   king,   with    Sir  William    Stanley   opposite. 

1  Plan    of    battle    of    Bosworth.       Hutton,    Battle    of    Boaworth 
Field,  p.  1. 


20  HENRY    VII  [1485 

Henry  appealed  to  Lord  Stanley  to  come  and  help 
him  form  his  men,  but  was  put  off  with  an  evasive 
answer.  Having  hesitated  so  long,  he  had  deter- 
mined to  be  found  on  the  winning  side. 

The  chroniclers  give  an  interesting  description  of 
Richmond's  appearance  as  he  stood  on  a  hill  to 
address  his  troops  on  the  most  critical  day  of  his 
adventurous  life,^  "  He  was  of  no  great  stature," 
we  are  told,  "  his  countenance  and  aspecte  was 
chereful  and  couragious,  his  heare  yelow  lyke  the 
burnished  golde,  his  eyes  gray  shynynge  and  quicke." 
The  orations  said  to  have  been  delivered  by  the  two 
leaders  have  been  handed  down  to  us,  but  Henry's 
appeal  and  the  speech  of  the  fiery  Richard  rest  on 
the  same  slender  foundations.  Henry's  speech  seems 
to  have  contained  the  same  bold  claim  to  sovereignty 
he  had  made  on  landing  and  continued  ever  since. 
He  asserted  that  Richard  usurped  his  lawful  patri- 
mony and  lineal  inheritance,  and  hinted  that  the  host 
ranged  against  him,  which  appears  to  have  been  at 
least  twice  as  large  as  his  own,  contained  soldiers  "  by 
force  compelled  and  not  with  goodmll  assembled." 
According  to  Hall  he  inveighed  against  "  younder 
tyraunt,  Richard  Duke  of  Gloucester  .  .  .  which  is 
both  Tarquine  and  Nero,"  urged  his  men  not  to  be 
dismayed  by  the  disparity  of  numbers,  and  bade 
them  advance  like  "  trew  men  against  traytors, 
pitifull  persones  against  murtherers,  trew  inheritors 
against  usurpers,  ye  skorges  of  God  against  tirauntes  " 
in  the  name  of  God  and  of  St.  George.  Inspired  by 
some  such  stirring  appeal  Henry's  men  advanced  to 
the  attack,  their  right  wing  being  protected  by  marshy 

1  Hall,  Chron.,  pp.  416-18;  Halliwell,  Letters  of  Kings  of  Eng.,  i. 
164-9. 


BATTLE  OF  BOSWORTH,  22^° AUGUST.  1485 


Adapted  by  pennission  from  the  plan  by  Sir  James  H.  Ramsay,  Bart., 
in  Lancaster  and  York 


1485]  EARLY    LIFE  21 

ground,  their  left  and  rear  by  a  little  stream,  while 
the  sun  shone  into  the  faces  of  the  royal  host.  The 
advance,  though  a  bold  move,  was  well  managed. 
The  Earl  of  Oxford,  with  the  archers,  was  in  the 
centre ;  the  right  and  left  wings  were  led  by  Sir  Gilbert 
Talbot  and  Sir  John  Savage  ;  Henry,  with  the  Earl  of 
Pembroke,  led  the  main  guard.  His  whole  force  did 
not  exceed  5000,  though,  strangely  enough,  he  seems 
to  have  been  considerably  stronger  than  Richard  in 
artillery,  the  new  weapon  of  war  against  which  the 
chivalry  of  a  feudal  host  was  powerless.^  As  Rich- 
mond's men  were  moving  to  the  attack  and  had  just 
passed  the  marsh,  the  royal  army  fell  upon  them.^ 
The  Earl  of  Oxford,  fearing  to  be  surrounded  by  the 
overwhelming  force  opposed  to  him,  paused  in  the 
attack ;  but,  realising  from  the  weakness  of  their 
resistance  that  the  royal  troops  were  fighting  half- 
heartedly, pressed  on  again.  At  this  critical  moment 
Stanley  led  his  3000  men  over  to  join  Richmond. 
This  seems  to  have  decided  the  issue  of  the  battle ; 
but  a  little  later  Henry  was  singled  out  for  personal 
combat  by  King  Richard,  who  slew  his  standard- 
bearer,  and  was  fighting  hand  to  hand  with  his  rival, 
when  the  Homeric  contest  was  ended  by  Sir  William 
Stanley,  whose  men,  "  in  their  coats  as  red  as  blood," 
fell  upon  the  king's  lines.  Richard,  with  the  fierce 
bold  spirit  of  the  Plantagenet  race,  refused  to  fly,  and 
died  fighting  desperately. 

In  a  short  time  the  battle  of  Bosworth  Field  was 
over.  Henry  had  gained  a  decisive  victory.  Though 
the  fight  only  lasted  two  hours,  the  loss  was  heavy, 

1  Gairdner,  Archceologia,  Iv.  168-9. 

*  Hall's  account  of  the  battle  is  unreliable,  Vergil's  simpler  story 
is  to  be  preferred. 


22  HENRY    VII  [1485 

especially  on  King  Richard's  side,  those  slain  includ- 
ing the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  Lord  Ferrers,  Sir  Richard 
Ratcliffe,  and  Sir  Robert  Brackenbury.  Lord  Lovel 
and  the  Staffords  fled  to  sanctuary  at  Colchester,  and 
the  Earls  of  Northumberland  and  Surrey  were  taken 
prisoners.  Henry  only  lost  about  100  men,  among 
them  being  his  standard-bearer,  William  Brandon. 
This  was  the  last  of  the  thirteen  battles  of  the  Roses, 
and  of  them  all  the  most  important. 

Henry,  after  giving  thanks  for  the  victory  "  with 
devoute  and  Godly  orisons,"  stood  on  a  mound,  called 
to  this  day  "  King  Harry's  Hill,"  to  address  his 
victorious  troops,  bidding  them  care  for  the  wounded 
and  bury  the  slain.  He  was  hailed  with  shouts  of 
"  King  Henry  ! — King  Henry !  "  The  crown  which 
the  dead  king  had  worn  into  battle  was  found  in  a 
hawthorn  bush  and  brought  to  Lord  Stanley,  who 
set  it  on  Richmond's  head.^  Henry  Tudor  was 
King  of  England.- 

^  Andr6  mentions  Fox  and  Claristopher  Urswick  as  present  in 
the  battle.      Vita,  pp.  33,  34. 

^  Richmond's  persistent  assumption  of  sovereignty  appears  even 
in  a  contemporary  ballad,  which  makes  liim  say,  on  the  eve  of  the 
battle  :  "  I  trust  in  England  to  continue  king  "  (Ballad  of  Bostmrth 
Field).  Other  ballads,  The  Bose  of  England  and  the  Song  of  the  Lady 
Bessy,  give  vivid  and  dramatic  details.  Percy  MSS.  (ed.  Hales  and 
Furnivall) ;  Gairdner,  Richard  III.,  pp.  345-362. 


CHAPTER    II 

ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION    OF    HENRY    VII.— 
SETTLEMENT   IN   THE   KINGDOM,    1485-1487 

Henry  Tudor  had  been  hailed  as  King  of  England 
by  the  shouts  of  his  victorious  army,  but  he  was 
still  far  from  his  goal.  The  difficulties  that  faced 
him  dwarfed  his  early  struggles.  He  had  might  not 
right  behind  him,  and  a  claim  that  rested  on  force 
invited  a  later  trial  of  strength,  and  involved  asso- 
ciations of  tyranny  and  subjection.  He  had  been 
raised  by  the  result  of  a  successful  conspiracy,  by 
an  unnatural  union  of  York  and  Lancaster  due  to 
a  common  detestation  of  King  Richard.  It  was  on 
the  maintenance  of  this  union  that  Henry's  hold 
on  England  depended  during  the  first  difficult  months 
of  his  reign,  but  there  was  no  guarantee  that  it  would 
survive  now  that  its  chief  object  had  been  attained 
in  Richard's  overthrow.  The  vicissitudes  of  the  long 
struggle  between  York  and  Lancaster  had  bred  in 
the  minds  of  the  people  a  familiarity  with  violent 
changes  which,  while  it  had  contributed  to  Henry's 
success,  might  as  easily  cause  his  fall.  Loyalty  to 
the  Crown  was  almost  extinguished,  reverence  for 
its  wearer  had  vanished.  The  Crown  had  become  the 
prize  of  private  ambition.  No  great  king  had  lifted 
it  out  of  the  arena  of  conflict,  the  wearers  of  it  had 
frequently  been  overthrown  and  met  with  violent 
deaths.     The   country  that   had  produced   Warwick 


24  HENRY    VII  [1485 

the  King-maker  had  become  accustomed  to  sudden 
changes  in  the  titular  sovereignty.  The  York  and 
Lancaster  quarrel  had  been  the  curse  of  England. 
There  were  no  great  principles  at  stake.  The  con- 
flict had  all  the  bitterness  of  a  family  feud,  all  the 
unscrupulousness  of  a  quarrel  over  property,  all  the 
ruthlessness  of  a  violent  age,  all  the  obstinacy  of  a 
struggle  between  evenly  matched  opponents,  all  the 
fanatic  fierceness  that  fired  the  blood  of  the  Angevin 
kings.  Plantagenet  had  destroyed  Plantagenet  until 
the  race  was  almost  extinct,  and  the  kings  who  had 
fought  their  bloodstained  way  to  the  throne  had 
dealt  out  destruction  with  a  savage  hand.  The 
nation  was  familiar  with  tyranny,  usurpation,  and 
regicide,  with  bitter  feuds  in  the  royal  house,  with 
wholesale  slaughter  in  battle,  with  open  executions, 
and  with  cold-blooded  secret  murders  in  royal 
palaces. 

The  whole  country  was  exhausted  and  disorderly. 
The  prospect  of  settled  government,  the  only  hope  of 
the  people,  aroused  no  enthusiasm  among  the  nobles, 
whose  overgrown  po%\er  was  at  the  root  of  many  of 
the  evils  that  distracted  the  country.  The  Crown 
had  been  far  too  weak  to  keep  in  subjection  men 
who  were  almost  kings  in  their  own  castles,  and  in 
whose  veins  ran  royal  blood.  Ever  since  the  loss  of 
the  French  possessions  had  removed  an  outlet  for 
their  tempestuous  energy,  England  had  been  their 
battleground.  Rebellion  had  become  a  habit,  treason 
an  occupation.  The  weakness  of  the  government  of 
Henry  VI.  removed  the  only  check  on  anarchy,  and 
England  had  been  plunged  into  a  struggle  of  un- 
precedented bitterness.  Each  great  noble  had  his 
retinue,    fed,    lodged,    and    armed    at    his    expense. 


1485]        ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION        25 

clothed  in  his  livery,  and  obeying  his  orders  blindly. 
Six  oxen  were  killed  to  provide  one  meal  for  the 
Earl  of  Warwick's  household,  and  even  the  neighbour- 
ing taverns  were  supplied  with  his  meat,  INIore  than 
four  hundred  and  fifty  persons  dined  and  supped  in  one 
day  at  the  table  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham.  There 
are  constant  references  in  the  Paston  Letters  and  other 
collections  to  the  prevalence  of  a  custom  so  dangerous 
to  the  central  government.^  Again,  the  custom  of 
placing  the  sons  of  the  gentry  in  the  households  of  the 
great  nobles  to  be  brought  up  extended  the  influence 
of  the  feudal  nobility  and  added  to  the  number  of  the 
families  personally  involved  in  quarrels  between  them. 

Another  part  of  the  constitution  from  which  some 
stability  might  have  been  hoped  for  had  failed. 
Parliament,  which  had  enjoyed  a  brief  but  promising 
time  of  development  under  the  early  Lancastrians, 
failed  when  the  sheltering  hand  of  a  strong  king  was 
removed.  The  House  of  Commons  fell  under  the 
influence  of  the  great  nobles,  became  a  mere  tool 
and  echo  of  the  Upper  House,  and  sla%4shly  reflected 
the  vicissitudes  of  the  Civil  War,  proscribing  attainders 
as  ordered  and  reversing  them  when  required,^ 

The  lower  ranks  of  society,  though  not  involved  to 

^  An  Italian  observer  wrote  :  ''  The  titled  nobility  .  .  .  were 
extremely  profuse  in  their  expenditure,  and  kept  a  very  great 
retinue  in  their  houses  (which  is  a  thing  the  Enghsh  delight  in 
beyond  measure) ;  and  in  this  manner  they  made  themselves  a 
multitude  of  retainers  and  followers,  with  whom  they  afterwards 
molested  the  Court  and  their  own  coiintries ;  and  in  the  end  them- 
selves, for  at  last  they  were  all  beheaded." — Italian  Relation 
(Camden  Society),  p.  39. 

*  "  It  claimed  a  cogency  and  infallibility  which  every  change  of 
pohcy  behes." — Stubbs,  Const.  Hist.,  iii.  252.  The  composition  of 
the  House  of  Commons  was  dependent  upon  the  influence  of 
the  nobles  over  the  local  elections. 


26  HENRY    VII  [1485 

the  same  extent  in  the  dynastic  struggle,  had  not 
escaped  the  evils  of  civil  war.  Roughly  speaking, 
North  was  fighting  against  South  in  the  cause  of 
the  white  and  the  red  roses.  Law  and  justice  were 
paralysed,  juries  were  overawed  by  open  violence  or 
unblushing  bribery.^  Writs  of  all  kinds  were  bought 
and  sold.  Gangs  of  outlaws  and  desperadoes  haunted 
the  royal  forests  and  exterminated  the  deer  in  the 
royal  parks.  Murder  had  become  horribly  frequent, 
and  often  went  not  only  unpunished  but  unprosecuted, 
as  the  coroners  often  failed  in  their  duty.  The 
custom  of  sanctuary  had  become  a  crying  abuse 
Sir  Thomas  More,  drawing  a  picture  of  the  state  of 
England  ten  years  after  Henry's  accession,  thought 
that  few  sanctuary  men  were  driven  to  that  refuge 
by  necessity.  "  Thievis  bring  thither  their  stolen 
goods  and  live  theron  .  .  .  nightly  they  steal  out, 
they  robbe  and  steale  and  kill  and  come  in  again  as 
though  those  places  gave  them  not  only  a  safeguard 
for  the  harm  they  have  done  but  a  license  to  do 
more."  Further,  he  says,  "  rich  men  run  thither 
with  poor  men's  goods,  there  they  build,  there  they 
spend  and  bid  their  creditors  go  whistle  them."  ^ 
Benefit  of  clergy  had  also  been  abused  to  such  an 
extent  that  crime  increased.  The  Italian  writer  said 
that  "  priests  are  the  occasion  of  crimes,"  and  pointed 
out  the  ease  with  which  criminals  could  escape 
punishment  by  pleading  benefit  of  clergy.  "  Yet 
notwithstanding  all  these  evasions,"  he  continued, 
"  people  are  taken  up  every  day  by  dozens,  like  birds 
in  a  covey,  and  especially  in  London,  yet  for  all  this 
they  never  cease  to  rob  and  murder  in  the  streets.  .  .  . 

^  e.g.,  Paston  Letters,  ed.  Gairdner,  i.  208,  215. 
2  Utopia;  Ital.  Rel.,  p.  36. 


\ 


1485]      ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION  27 

There  is  no  country  in  the  world  where  there  are  so 
many  thieves  and  robbers  as  England,  insomuch 
that  few  venture  to  go  alone  in  the  country  except  in 
the  middle  of  the  day,  and  fewer  still  in  the  towns 
at  night,  and  least  of  all  in  London."  ^  Even  in  the 
walled  towns,  comparatively  immune  from  the  disturb- 
ances of  the  Civil  War,  there  was  poverty  and  decay, 
due  to  the  interruption  of  trade  and  heavy  taxation. 
The  coasts  were  ill  defended,  piracy  flourished  un- 
checked. The  Crown  was  heavily  in  debt,  and  many  of 
the  CrowTi  jewels  were  in  pawn.  Ireland  was  almost  in- 
dependent of  the  English  king,  and  was  even  a  potential 
enemy  of  Henry  VII.,  the  dominant  party  among  the 
Anglo-Irish  lords  being  Yorkist  in  sympathy. 

The  influence  of  England  in  Europe  was  negligible. 
All  the  energies  of  the  nation  and  of  its  kings  had  been 
sucked  into  the  whirlpool  of  civil  strife,  ^ngland  was 
even  losing  her  foreign  trade,  and  much  of  what 
remained  was  monopolised  by  privileged  aliens.  The 
conquests  of  Henry  V.  had  gone,  and  with  them  the 
prestige  of  England  which,  exhausted  and  without 
allies,  had  sunk  into  a  mean  position.  But,  when 
considering  the  position  of  England  in  Europe  in  1485, 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  country  enjoyed 
one  great  advantage.  It  was  not,  like  France  or  Spain, 
only  lately  consolidated  and  united  by  the  accident  of 
dynastic  succession.  It  had  long  been  a  separate  nation, 
and  the  people  were  already  becoming  self-conscious 
and  proud  of  their  nationality.  "  These  English," 
wrote  an  Italian  observer,  "are  great  lovers  of  them- 

1  Hal.  Eel.,  pp.  34,  36.  The  Italian  visitor  gives  a  very  lively 
accountof  "  the  Islanders,"  of  their  love  of  good  living  and  fine  clothes, 
their  hatred  of  foreigners  and  insular  pride,  their  great  wealth  emd 
avarice.    Ibid.,  pp.  20,  21,  23,  25,  28,  29,  72. 


28  HENRY    VII  [1485 

selves,  and  of  everything  belonging  to  them;  they  think 
that  there  are  no  other  men  but  themselves,  and  no 
other  world  but  England."  ^  It  was  to  this  awakening 
patriotism  that  Henry  VII.  later  successfully  appealed. 
It  was  a  formidable  task  to  face,  and  Henry's  right 
to  undertake  it  was  open  to  very  grave  objections. 
The  principle  which  regulated  the  descent  of  the 
Crown  was  by  no  means  certain.  It  was  clear  enough 
that  the  monarchy  was  hereditary,  but  whether  it 
could  be  transmitted  through  females  was  not  so 
clear.  In  addition  there  was  the  difficulty  arising 
from  Parliamentary  acknowledgment  of  variations 
from  the  hereditary  principle.  In  the  confusion,  both 
parties  could  claim  that  they  had  right  on  their  side. 
If  the  Crown  could  be  inherited  like  a  private  estate, 
Henry  VII.  might  claim  it  as  nearest  heir  of  Henry 
VI.,  who  had  inherited  a  Parliamentary  title  from 
Henry  IV.  If  the  throne  of  England  descended  like  a 
peerage  and  by  law  of  strict  inheritance  confined  to 
the  heirs  male,  it  belonged  to  the  Yorkist  party,  and 
Edward,  Earl  of  Warwick,  should  have  been  King  of 
England.  Both  claims,  however,  had  been  barred 
by  attainder.  The  Lancastrian  usurpation  had  been 
legalised  by  Act  of  Parliament  and  dignified  by  three 
generations  of  kingship,  but  Henry  VII.  could  only 
show  a  flawed  descent.  He  was  neither  heir  general 
nor  heir  male  of  Edward  III. ;  his  claim  to  inherit 
from  Henry  IV.  was  through  the  half  blood,  and 
therefore  doubtful.  He  could  claim  that  he  was  heir 
general  of  John  of  Gaunt,  but  even  that  was  open  to 
some  dispute.  The  issue  of  John  of  Gaunt's  union 
with  Katherine  S^vynford  had  been  legitimised  by 
Act   of    Parliament,    and   research    has    shown  that 

1  Ital.  ReL,  p.  21. 


f 


U85]        ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION        29 

the  clause  reser\ang  the  royal  dignity  contained  in 
the  later  confirmation  did  not  exist  in  the  original 
Act  of  Richard  II.  It  is  doubtful  whether  such  an 
interpolation,  involving  as  it  did  an  alteration  in  the 
nature  of  the  Act  it  purported  to  confirni,  was  of 
binding  force.  Henr^-  himself  was  probably  unaware 
of  the  strength  of  his  own  claim/  and  Richard  III. 
had  in  many  proclamations  insisted  on  the  bastardy 
of  his  ancestry.  There  was  another  difficulty.  Wliat 
claim  Henry  had  he  derived  from  his  mother,  and 
this  recognition  of  the  principle  of  descent  through 
females  involved  the  admission  that  the  Yorkists  de- 
scended from  Lionel  came  before  him.  The  fact  that 
if  Henry's  title  was  good  his  mother's  was  better  seems 
to  have  been  completely  and  fortunately  overlooked.'^ 
As  far  as  hereditary  right  went  the  Yorkists  un- 
doubtedly had  the  stronger  position.  They  had  been 
very  popular  in  London  and  in  the  north,  especially 
in  the  city  of  York,^  but  their  prodigality  and  violence 
had  brought  reaction.  The  brilliant  coiu-t  of  Edward 
IV.  had  little  influence  outside  a  narrow  area,  and 
the  failure  of  his  attempts  at  foreign  invasion  aroused 
memories  of  the  splendid  achievements  of  Henry  V. 
The  claims  of  both  parties  had  been  discredited  by 
their  failures.  The  Yorkists  could  claim  "the  divine 
right  of  hereditary  succession,"  but  their  t\Tanny 
had  alienated  loyalty  ;  the  Lancastrian  rule  had  a 
Parliamentary  basis  but  had  failed  to  provide  strong 
government.      The  whole  difficult  question  of  prin- 

^  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.,  Intro,  sxx.     Biisch,  op.  cit.,  p.  22. 

*  On  the  question  of  Henry's  title  see  Stubbs,  Led.  on  Med.  and 
Mod.  History,  394-5. 

*  Davies,    York  Records,  pp.   220-4.     The  corporation  expressed 
their  deep  regret  at  the  result  of  the  battle  of  Bosworth. 


80  HENRY    VII  [1485 

ciple  was  admirably  summarised  by  the  Italian 
observer,  who  noticed  that  though  the  king  theoreti- 
cally succeeded  by  hereditary  right,  if  the  succession 
were  disputed  the  question  was  often  settled  by  force 
of  arms.  "  And  heretofore  it  has  always  been  an 
understood  thing  that  he  who  lost  the  day,  lost  the 
kingdom  also."  ^  Technicalities  of  title  were  of  little 
importance  at  a  time  when  every  member  of  both 
the  royal  houses  had  been  attainted  at  one  time  or 
another,  and  when  ambition  and  violence  had  proved 
the  most  successful  title  to  the  throne. 

In  the  absence  of  a  clearly  recognised  and  binding 
principle  of  succession,  Henry's  claim  that  he  was  the 
heir  of  the  House  of  Lancaster  was  good  enough  to 
enlist  the  loyalty  of  those  who  had  fought  for  the 
red  rose.  The  vitality  of  the  Lancastrian  dynasty 
is  noticeable.  Its  roots  went  deep  into  the  soil  ;  it 
was  hard  to  upset,  and  revived  in  the  face  of  great 
odds.  Was  there  really  a  popular  a})preciation  of 
their  "  politic  "  rule  ?  Possibly ;  there  certainly  was 
a  revulsion  from  the  tyranny  of  the  House  of  York. 
The  violence  of  the  later  stages  of  the  dynastic 
struggle  had  strengthened  Henry's  position.  The 
murders  and  executions  that  preceded  and  followed 
Richard's  coronation  paved  the  way  for  the  Tudor 
by  removing  his  competitors.  The  direct  line  of  the 
House  of  Lancaster  had  been  wiped  out,  and  of  the 
House  of  York  there  remained  only  Edward,  Earl  of 
Warwick,  and  the  daughters  of  Edward  IV.  Henry 
had  enlisted  the  support  of  many  of  the  Yorkists 
alienated  by  the  brutality  of  Richard  III.,-  and  could 

1  Itcd.  Bel,  p.  46. 

^  On  this  point  see  Leadam,  Star  Chamber  Cases  (Selden  Soc),  i. 
Intro,  cliv. 


1485]      ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION  31 

count  on  its  continuance.  The  young  Earl  of  War- 
wick, who  had  a  hereditary  claim  upon  their  loyalty, 
was  a  feeble-minded  boy,  and  Henry's  promise  to 
marry  Elizabeth  of  York  presented  an  attractive 
compromise.  The  Yorkists  who  helped  Henry  to 
the  throne  hoped  to  see  him  reign  by  virtue  of  this 
marriage.  From  this  view  Henry  dissented.  To 
reign  in  right  of  a  Yorkist  wife  was  to  "be  but  a 
King  at  courtesy,  and  have  rather  a  matrimonial  than 
a  regal  power."  ^  Yorkist  loyalty  would  be  due  to 
the  queen  rather  than  the  king,  and  would  be  un- 
certain and  undependable  at  best.  Henry  meant,  if 
possible,  to  be  crowned  King  of  England  in  his  own 
right  alone,  and  to  make  his  marriage  appear  a 
concession  rather  than  a  compromise. 

From  Henry's  point  of  view  the  situation  was 
promising.  The  nation  was  weary  of  anarchy  and 
looked  for  a  strong  central  government  as  the  only 
hope  of  peace.  Defects  of  title  would  be  ignored  in 
a  king  who  would  govern  with  a  strong  hand  and 
justly.  The  forces  that  had  formerly  acted  as  a 
check  on  royal  power  were  demoralised.  The  Church, 
\vrapped  in  a  materialistic  slumber,  had  ceased  to  be 
the  guardian  of  popular  freedom ;  Parliament  repre- 
sented only  popular  apathy  and  lack  of  interest  in 
politics.  There  was  no  force  in  England  that  offered 
hope  of  salvation  to  society  except  the  Crown,  and 
no  force  that  could  resist  it,  if  it  took  up  the  challenge. 
Anarchy  gave  birth  to  despotism. 

Everything  depended  on  the  character  and  ability 
of  the  new  king.  He  needed  all  his  statecraft  and 
tenacity  if  he  was  to  keep  his  seat  on  the  uneasy 
throne  of  the  Plantagenets.     One  moment's  slacken- 

^  Bacou,  Henry  VII.  (ed.  Spedding),  p.  29. 


82  HENRY    VII  [U85 

ing  of  grip,  the  first  appearance  of  weakness,  and 
Henry  VII.  would  add  another  to  the  long  list  of 
deposed  or  murdered  kings.  But  the  hour  had  pro- 
duced the  man.  The  new  king  had  given  proofs  of 
marked  ability  in  the  difficult  years  of  exile.  Some- 
thing was  due  to  his  personal  gifts,  more  perhaps  to 
the  teaching  of  adversity.  All  the  chroniclers  agree 
that  Henry  had  the  gift  of  winning  friendship  and 
retaining  loyalty.  The  Duke  of  Burgundy,  we  are 
told,  was  won  over  to  support  him  by  his  good  looks 
and  fine  bearing,  his  gravity  in  spite  of  his  youth, 
and  his  modesty  and  uprightness.'  A  similar  reason 
is  given  to  explain  the  support  he  obtained  from  the 
King  of  France.  Even  allowing  for  the  bias  of  the 
courtly  narrator,  it  is  clear  that  Henry  was  extra- 
ordinarily successful  in  inspiring  his  supporters  with 
faith  in  his  ultimate  success.  He  retained  the  friend- 
ship of  France  and  Burgundy  in  the  face  of  Richard's 
tempting  offers,  and  the  failure  of  his  first  attempt 
upon  England  was  not  followed  by  any  notable  seces- 
sions from  his  cause.  Though  an  exile  in  a  foreign 
court,  dependent  upon  the  bounty  of  a  foreign  prince, 
he  had  escaped  subservience  and  incurred  no  fettering 
obligations.  To  patience  in  waiting  he  added  bold- 
ness in  action.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  land  a  handful 
of  men  on  the  English  coast,  and  take  the  style  and 
title  of  King  of  England.  But  to  the  qualities 
common  to  all  adventurers,  Henry  added  gifts  of  a 
very  different  calibre.  Circumstances  had  made  him 
subtle,  tactful,  secretive,  had  given  him  judgment 
and  experience  of  men  and  their  motives.  Hall 
speaks  of  him  as  having  the  "  ingenious  forcast  of 
the  subtyl  serpent."     It  needed  no  mean  capacity  to 

1  Andr6,  Vita,  p.  17. 


U85]       ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION  33 

keep  together  his  band  of  exiles,  watch  those  who 
meditated  treachery,  negotiate  the  alhance  with  the 
queen-dowager,  win  over  the  Welsh  chieftains  and 
the  wavering  Stanleys.  Thus  it  was  a  man  who  had 
already  learnt  something  of  the  statesmanship  Avhich 
afterwards  distinguished  him  as  the  "politic  king,"  who 
took  up  the  task  of  Idngship  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight. 

On  the  field  of  battle  Henry  knighted  eleven  of  his 
followers,  among  whom  were  Gilbert  Talbot  and  Rhys 
ap  Thomas.  In  the  evening  the  conqueror  marched 
with  his  victorious  army  into  Leicester.  There  too 
the  body  of  the  late  king  was  shamefully  brought, 
strapped  on  the  back  of  a  horse,  "  naked  and  despoyled 
to  the  skynne  .  .  .  and  byspryncled  with  mire  and 
bloude."  Bacon's  statement  that  the  king,  "  of  his 
nobleness,"  ordered  that  his  defeated  rival  should 
have  honourable  burial  is  supported  by  the  words 
of  Andre, ^  but  the  king's  body  seems  to  have  been 
buried  in  the  Grey  Friars'  church  with  little  cere- 
mony. In  later  years  the  king  had  a  tomb  raised 
to  Richard's  memor}^2 

It  was  all  important  for  Henry  to  have  in  his  power 
the  surviving  members  of  the  Yorkist  royal  family, 
the  Princess  Elizabeth  and  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  who 
had  been  confined  by  Richard  in  the  castle  of  Sheriff's 
Hutton  in  Yorkshire.  W^hile  Henry  was  still  at 
Leicester,  Sir  Richard  Willoughby,  armed  with  a  royal 
warrant,  obtained  the  surrender  of  the  Earl  of  War- 
v/ick,  who  was  at  once  conveyed  to  London  and  lodged 
in  the  Tower,  where  he  was  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  un- 
happy life.  In  this  "  act  of  policy  and  power  "  Bacon 
finds  Henry  acting  as  a  partizan  rather  than  a  king, 

»  Andr6,  Vita,  p.  34 ;  Bacon,  p.  27. 

*  Excerpta  Historica  (Privy  Purse  Expenses),  ed.  Bentley,  p.  105. 

C 


84  HENRY    VII  [1485 

but  the  young  earl,  though  without  character  or  capa- 
city, was  dangerous  as  the  heir  of  the  Yorkist  Hne  and 
of  their  claim  upon  the  people's  loyalty.  At  the  same 
time  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  attended  by  a  consider- 
able retinue,  was  taken  to  join  her  mother  in  London. 

After  two  days  in  Leicester  Henry  advanced 
towards  the  capital,  marching  by  easy  stages  along 
roads  lined  with  cheering  spectators.  He  reached 
London  on  Saturday,  27th  August,  being  met  at 
Hornsey  by  the  mayor,  sheriffs,  and  councillors  in 
their  scarlet  robes,  and  by  a  great  crowd  of  citizens, 
who  pressed  forward  to  kiss  the  hands  "  which  had 
overcome  so  monstruous  and  cruell  a  tyrant."  ^  Andre, 
who  greeted  him  with  an  ode  of  welcome,  records  his 
triumphant  entry  into  the  joyful  city.  He  rode 
"  with  greate  pompe  and  triumphe  "  to  St.  Paul'Sj^ 
where  with  jirayers  and  a  Tc  Deiim  he  offered  up  his 
victorious  standards,  the  standard  of  St.  George,  a 
banner  bearing  the  red  fiery  dragon  of  Cadwallader, 
and  a  >  ellow  banner  emblazoned  with  a  dun  cow.^ 

The  king  took  up  his  quarters  at  the  Bishop  of 

^  The  date  of  the  king's  entry  into  London,  given  by  Dr.  Gairdner 
as  3rd  September,  has  been  corrected  by  Dr.  Busch  on  the  authority 
of  the  City  Chronicle  (MS.  fo.  141,  ed.  Ivingsford,  p.  193).  He 
certainly  entered  London  on  a  Saturday  (Andre,  Vita,  p.  34),  "  wliich 
day  ...  of  the  week  he  accounted  and  chose  as  a  day  prosperous 
unto  him."     Bacon,  p.  32. 

-  Bacon's  suggestion  that  Henry  entered  the  city  in  a  closed 
chariot,  perhaps  based  upon  Speed's  misreading  of  Andre's  narrative, 
has  been  finally  disposed  of  by  Dr.  Gairdner.  Henry  VII.,  p.  33  ; 
Memorials,  Intro.,  p.  xxv.  ;    Busch,  op.  cit.,  p.  322,  n.  6. 

^  The  significance  of  this  banner  has  not  been  discovered.  Most 
of  the  king's  standards  were  argent  and  vert,  the  Tudor  colours; 
one  only  bore  the  azure  and  gules  of  the  Plantagenet  kings.  This 
last,  which  bore  a  crowned  hon,  red  roses  encircled  with  rays  of  gold, 
and  fleurs-dc-lys,  was  the  standard  of  Edward  III.,  with  the  addition 
of  the  Tudor  roses. — Exccrpta  Hiatorica,  pp.  57,  61. 


I486]      ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION  35 

London's  palace,  and  summoned  a  council  at  which  he 
renewed  his  promise  to  marry  Elizabeth.  According 
to  Polydor  Vergil  a  day  was  fixed  for  the  marriage,  but 
Henry  did  not  abandon  his  intention  of  first  being 
acknowledged  as  king  in  his  own  right.  Before  he  had 
been  a  week  in  the  capital  he  surrounded  himself  with 
the  trappings  of  his  new  dignity,  royal  robes  of  cloth 
of  gold  and  ermine,  rich  plate  and  jewels.  "  Playes, 
pastymes  and  pleasures  were  shewed  in  every  part 
of  the  cytie."  On  3rd  September  the  king  paid  a 
state  visit  to  the  city,  a  free  gift  of  1000  marks  being 
voted  to  him.  On  15th  September  writs  were  issued 
for  a  Parliament  to  meet  on  5th  November  "  to  dis- 
cuss pressing  and  weighty  measures  for  the  government 
and  defence  of  the  kingdom  and  church  of  England." 
Henry,  in  the  words  of  Bacon,  "as  a  prudent  and 
moderate  prince,  made  this  judgment  that  it  was  fit 
for  him  to  haste  to  let  his  people  see  that  he  meant  to 
govern  by  law,  howsoever  he  came  in  by  the  sword." 
During  the  weeks  that  followed  the  king  secured 
his  hold  on  the  possessions  as  well  as  the  dignity  of 
royalty,  rewarding  his  followers,  taking  over  the  Crown 
lands,  appropriating  the  confiscated  property  of  the 
late  king's  supporters,  and  getting  the  machinery  of 
administration  into  his  hands.  The  first  weeks  of  his 
reign  are  a  fair  specimen  of  the  occupations  of  his 
whole  laborious  life  and  of  his  intimate  knowledge  of 
all  the  details  of  administration.  Grants  of  land  and 
money  were  made  to  all  the  king's  faithful  supporters, 
from  the  Earl  of  Oxford  down  to  simple  yeomen  who 
had   done   service   "  at  the  late   victorious  felde."  ^ 

*  Among  those  who  were  rewarded  were  Sir  Richard  Edgecombe, 
the  Stanleys,  Hugh  Conway,  Christopher  Urswick,  and  Rhys  ap 
Thomas. 


36  HENRY    VII  [1485 

No  one  who  is  known  to  have  served  the  king  was 
forgotten,  and  those  who  had  suffered  for  the  House 
of  Lancaster  in  the  past  were  rewarded.  One  Wilham 
Stoughton,  for  instance,  who  had  "  dispended  his 
youth  in  the  service  of  Henry  VI.,"  was  made  an 
ahns-knight  of  St.  George's  Chapel,  Windsor.  Nearly 
all  these  grants  contained  a  clause  stating  that  the 
gift  was  made  to  the  king's  servant  "  in  consideration 
of  his  services  against  the  king's  rivalling  enemy  and 
adversary,  Richard,  late  Duke  of  Gloucester,  the 
usurper  of  the  king's  right  and  crown  aforesaid."  Some 
such  description  of  the  late  king  was  always  inserted, 
in  accordance  with  custom  :  in  fact  the  shorter  form, 
"  King  in  dede  but  not  in  right,"  became  a  stereotyped 
formula  attached  to  any  mention  of  Richard's  name. 
Changes  were  made  in  the  administrative  and 
judicial  offices.  The  Bishop  of  Exeter  became  Keeper 
of  the  Privy  Seal,^  and  Thomas  Lovell  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer.  New  judges  and  law  officers  were 
appointed.  IMany  important  offices  were  bestowed 
upon  the  king's  suite.  John,  Earl  of  Oxford,  became 
Constable  of  the  Tower  of  London  for  life.-  Sir 
William  Berkeley  became  "  master  and  operator  of 
the  king's  monies  and  keeper  of  the  king's  exchange  " ; 
Sir  Richard  Guildford,  another  faithful  supporter, 
became  ?» I  aster  of  the  Ordnance  and  Keeper  of  the 
Armoury  in  the  Tower  of  London.    The  king's  activity 

1  He  also  obtained  a  grant  of  the  temporalities  of  the  Bishopric  of 
SaUsbiiry,  forfeited  by  the  bishop's  "many  rebeUions  ageunst  the 
king." 

*  He  was  also  appointed  "  keeper  of  the  lions,  honesses,  and 
leopards  within  the  Tower,"  receiving  for  this  office  wages  of  12d. 
a  day,  and  6d.  a  day  for  the  support  of  each  of  the  animals  in  his 
charge. — Materiaia  for  History  of  Reign  of  Henry  VII.,  ed.  Campbell 
(Rolls  Ser.),  i.  31. 


1485]        ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION        37 

also  showed  itself  in  the  disposition  of  church 
patronage  all  over  England,  from  the  appointment  of 
a  new  Dean  of  the  Chapel  Royal  at  Windsor  to  the 
confirmation  of  the  election  of  a  new  Abbess  of  Wilton.^ 

All  these  acts  of  sovereignty  were  significant.  By 
them  Henry  boldly  asserted  that  his  tenure  of  the 
Cro%vn  was  independent  of  Parliamentary  sanction. 
He  even  disposed  of  the  estates  of  the  rebels  before 
they  had  been  pronounced  forfeited  by  Parliament, - 
and  arranged  for  the  collection  of  the  customs  before 
Parliament  had  granted  them  to  him.^ 

The  Patent  Rolls  of  this  year  show  how  rapidly  and 
firmly  the  once  landless  exile  took  up  the  duties  of 
royalty,  with  quick  eyes  and  brain  restoring  order 
and  checking  waste.  The  new  arrangements  made 
in  these  first  weeks  of  the  reign  for  the  management 
of  the  Cro^ATi  lands  show  his  business-like  methods 
and  grasp  of  financial  detail.-'  Land  was  leased  out 
at  improved  rents,  ''  overseers  of  works  and  repara- 
tions "  were  appointed  in  many  royal  castles  and 
lordships.  He  saw  that  the  royal  castles  were  put 
into  the  hands  of  faithful  servants,  appointed  keepers 
of  parks  and  forests,  bailiffs  of  royal  towns,  and  so  on. 
Provision  for  sport  was  not  overlooked.  The  king 
appointed  foresters  and  masters  of  the  game,   ser- 

1  On  25th  September,  less  than  a  month  after  Henry  reached 
the  capital,  he  founded  a  chantry  "  for  the  soul  of  the  king  and  his 
mother  and  of  their  noble  progenitors." 

*  Materials,  i.  'passim. 

*  Collectors  of  toimage  and  searchers  in  the  chief  ports  of  the 
kingdom  were  appointed  -with  instructions  to  confiscate  all  wool, 
skins,  and  leather  that  had  not  paid  custom,  gold  and  silver  coins, 
buUion,  jewellery  and  plate,  as  well  as  "  letters  and  buUs  pre- 
judicial to  the  king  or  his  heirs."     Ihid. 

*  Extraordinarily  minute  accounts  were  kept :  "  id.fordivers  things 
needful,'"  is  one  of  the  entries.     Materials,  i.  230. 


88  HENRY    VU  [1485 

geants  of  the  hart -hounds  in  Somerset  and  Dorset,  a 
"  yeoman  of  the  king's  buckhounds,"  and  a  master  of 
"  the  king's  dogs  called  harriers."  ^  There  is  evidence 
of  considerable  reorganisation  of  the  royal  house- 
hold.2  By  the  end  of  September  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment were  fairly  in  the  king's  hands.  Neither  revenge 
nor  weakness  disfigured  the  first  months  of  the  reign. 
The  past  years  of  bloodthirsty  violence  were  forgotten. 
On  2-lth  September  a  general  pardon  had  been 
issued,  from  which  a  few  only  of  Richard's  followers 
were  excepted.  Policy  dictated  the  king's  attitude  ; 
there  was  trouble  threatening  in  the  North.  Scotland 
was  just  emerging  from  barbarism  under  her  chival- 
rous and  enlightened  king,  James  IV.,  who  shared 
the  traditional  hostility  to  England.  The  unsettled 
conditions  in  England  afforded  him  too  tempting  an 
opportunity  to  be  resisted.  On  25th  September,  the 
sheriffs  and  gentlemen  of  the  northern  counties  were 
ordered  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness  to  repel  an 
anticipated  Scotch  invasion.  The  terms  of  the 
pardon  proclaimed  in  the  city  of  York  on  8th  October 
betrayed  Henry's  dread  of  the  Scotch  danger.     The 

^  Materials,  i.  passim.  A  "  master  \-iner  "  at  Windsor  Castle 
was  appointed  at  6d.  a  day,  and  the  same  man  became  keeper  of 
"  the  grete  gsirdyne  in  Wyndesore."     Ihid.,  p.  69. 

2  The  clerk  of  the  market  of  the  king's  household  was  appointed 
to  hold  office  for  life.  Other  men  were  appointed  to  provide,  for 
a  period  of  sis  months,  the  beef  and  mutton,  salt  and  fresh  fish, 
com,  capons  and  fowls  for  the  use  of  the  household,  horsemeat 
and  Utter  for  the  king's  stud,  and  so  on.  Esquires  of  the  king's 
body  were  appointed  for  life  at  a  salary  of  50  marks  yearly,  and 
other  posts  filled  about  the  same  tune  were  "  a  grome  of  his  mouth 
in  the  cellar,"  and  a  keeper  of  beds  within  the  castle  of  Windsor. 
Benedict  Frutze  became  one  of  the  king's  physicians.  One  of  the 
gentleman  ushers  was  given  the  office  of  keeping  "  paradise,  hell  and 
purgatory  "  within  Westminster  Hall.     Materials. 


1485]        ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION        39 

proclamation  stated  that  the  men  of  the  north  "  who 
have  doone  us  nowe  of  late  grete  displeaser,  being 
agenst  us  in  the  feld  with  the  adversarye  of  us,  enemy 
of  nature  and  of  all  publique  wele,"  were  pardoned 
owing  to  their  repenting  their  "  defaultes  "  and  being 
descendants  of  those  who  had  fought  and  suffered 
for  Henry  the  Sixth,  and — here  comes  the  real  reason 
— "  because  they  ...  be  necessarye  and  according  to 
there  dutie  most  defend  this  land  ayenst  the  Scottes." 
The  king  was  })repared  to  forgive  them  "  almaner 
riottes,  murders,  tresons,  felonyes,  insurreccions,  con- 
spiracies ayenst  there  liegaunces  doone  and  com- 
mitted "  before  the  22nd  day  of  September.  On 
16th  October  a  commission  was  issued  to  assemble 
men  in  the  home  and  south-western  counties.  On 
20th  October  the  men  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk  were 
ordered  to  be  ready  at  an  hour's  notice.^  This  ex- 
hibition of  readiness  to  resist  attack  had  the  desired 
effect,  and  by  20th  October  the  sheriffs  of  the  northern 
counties  were  ordered  to  proclaim  that  the  Scots, 
"  understanding  the  king's  politique  and  mighty  purvi- 
aunce  "  had  "  withdrawen  them  silf  and  bee  severally 
departed  sore  abasshed  and  rebuked."  The  northern 
gentlemen  were  thanked  for  their  services  and  given 
leave  to  disperse.  The  danger  was  over  for  the  time. 
Henry  had  made  up  his  mind  to  be  crowned  before 
Parliament  met.  He  meant  to  meet  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  as  a  crowned  and  anointed 
king,  who  had  no  need  to  wait  for  their  sanction  and 
acceptance.  He  was  busy  preparing  for  his  corona- 
tion when  the  "  sweating  sickness,"  hitherto  unknown 
in  England,  appeared  in  London.  The  disease  was 
very  virulent.     "  It  was  so  sore  peynfull  and  sharp 

»  Materiala,  i.  89,  93-4 ;  Paston  Letters,  iv.  325. 


40  HENRY    VII  [1485 

that  the  lyke  was  never  harde  of,"  but  it  ran  its 
course  rapidly,  and  the  patient  who  survived  the  first 
twenty-four  hours  was  almost  certain  to  recover.  It 
was  extremely  contagious  and  spread  rapidly.  Ac- 
cording to  Hall,  not  one  among  a  hundred  escaped, 
and  it  carried  off,  among  other  victims,  two  lord  mayors 
and  six  aldermen.  The  king  withdrew  to  his  manor 
of  Guildford  to  be  out  of  danger  of  contagion,  but 
before  the  end  of  October  the  sickness  had  disappeared. 
Many  have  thought  that  the  disease  was  brought  to 
the  crowded  streets  of  the  capital  by  Henry's  foreign 
mercenaries.^  The  visitation  was  popularly  regarded 
as  an  omen  of  "  a  stern  rule  and  a  troubled  reign." 
The  preparations  for  the  coronation  were  continued, 
and  the  capital  looked  forward  to  a  spectacle  which 
promised  to  be  more  brilliant  than  anything  that 
had  ever  been  seen  before.  On  19th  October  the  office 
of  Lord  High  StcAvard  of  England  had  been  put  into 
commission,  and  the  elaborate  preparations  for  the 
ceremony  were  made  under  the  direction  of  the  Earl 
of  Oxford  as  Lord  Chamberlain,  Lord  Stanley  as 
Lord  High  Constable,  and  the  Earl  of  Nottingham 
as  Earl  Marshal  of  England.  A  sparing  distribu- 
tion of  honours  signalised  the  coronation.  On  27th 
October,  Jasper,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  was  created  Duke 
of  Bedford,  Lord  Stanley  was  made  Earl  of  Derby, 
and  Sir  Edward  Courtcnay  was  raised  to  the  peerage  as 
Earl  of  Devon.  On  the  eve  of  the  coronation  the  king 
held  a  chapter  of  the  Bath  and  created  twelve  new 
knights.  On  the  30th  of  October  he  set  out  from  the 
Tower  to  Westminster  to  be  cro^^Tled.  The  details 
of  the  forgotten  scene  can  be   reconstructed  after  a 

^  It  is  curious  how  little  is  known  of  the  fate  of  Henry's  Breton 
troops. 


1485]        ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION        41 

lapse  of  four  centuries. ^  The  king,  still  in  the 
splendour  of  his  youth,  made  a  magnificent  figure. 
Over  a  doublet  of  cloth  of  gold  and  satin  in  the 
Tudor  colours  of  white  and  green  the  king  wore  a 
"  long  gowne  of  purpure  velvet,  furred  with  ermyns 
poudred,  open  at  the  side  and  purfiled  with  ermyns, 
laced  with  gold  and  with  taselles  of  Venys  gold, 
with  a  riche  sarpe  and  garter."  He  rode  a  charger 
with  trappings  of  cloth  of  gold,  and  a  golden  canopy 
was  held  above  him,  "  riding  opyn-heded,"  by  four 
noble  knights.  Seven  horsemen,  in  crimson  and  gold, 
riding  bareheaded  and  leading  a  spare  charger,  followed 
the  king.  His  henchmen  and  footmen  wore  liveries  of 
white  and  green,  and  there  was  a  long  line  of  heralds 
and  trumpeters  in  their  gorgeous  clothing.  The  red 
rose  of  Lancaster  and  the  crowned  portcullis  of  the 
House  of  Tudor  appeared  everywhere.  A  minute 
description  of  the  order  to  be  followed  at  the  ceremony 
has  been  preserved  among  the  Rutland  papers. ^  The 
scene  in  the  Abbey  was  full  of  colour  and  splendour. 
All  the  important  posts  at  the  ceremony  were  filled 
by  the  king's  personal  friends ;  his  sword  was  borne 
by  the  Earl  of  Derby,  his  crown  by  the  Duke  of 
Bedford,  and  his  spurs  by  the  Earl  of  Essex.  He 
was  supported  on  his  right  and  left  hand  by  the 
faithful  Bishops  of  Exeter  and  Ely.     The  lost  duchies 

1  See  the  Wardrobe  Accounts  printed  in  Materials,  ii.  163-180,  also 
the  Privy  Purse  Expenses  {Excerpta  Historica). 

*  The  "  device,"  as  it  was  called,  probably  drawn  up  between 
27th  and  30th  October,  was  merely  a  draft  submitted  to  the  king 
for  correction.  The  order  of  the  queen's  coronation  is  included, 
and  the  robes  to  be  worn  by  her  are  described,  a  blank  space  being 
left  for  the  insertion  of  the  queen's  name.  Lord  Lovell  is  set  down 
as  the  bearer  of  the  queen's  sceptre.  He  was,  of  course,  a  fugitive 
exile  long  before  the  date  of  Elizabeth's  crowning.  Rutland  Papers 
(Camden  Soc.)- 


42  HENRY    VII  [1485 

of  Guienne  and  Normandy  were  not  forgotten,  and 
mantles  and  caps  of  estate  were  borne  to  represent 
them.  This  brilHant  scene  inaugurated  the  era  of 
symboHc  pageantry  characteristic  of  the  House  of 
Tudor.  But  the  Lady  Margaret  "  wept  marvel- 
lously," partly  for  joy  and  partly  from  dread  of 
the  future.^ 

On  the  following  day  the  king  created  Philibert 
Shaunde — whom  Hall  describes  as  "  lord  Chandew  of 
Brittany,  his  especiall  frende  " — Earl  of  Bath.  At  the 
same  time  Edward  Stafford  was  restored  to  the  rank 
of  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  remained  throughout  the 
reign  one  of  the  most  brilliant  figures  of  Henry's  court.. 

According  to  contemporary  writers  the  day  of  the 
coronation  was  marked  by  the  formation  of  a  royal 
bod}guard  of  lifty  archers  known  as  the  Yeomen  of 
the  Guard.-  There  is  evidence,  however,  that  the 
king  formed  this  bodyguard  inmriediately  upon  his 
arrival  in  London  or  j)ossibly  during  his  exile  abroad.^ 
By  surrounding  his  person  with  guards,  in  imitation 
of  the  practice  of  the  court  of  France,  the  king  em- 

'  Fisher,  Moriih's  Mind  of  Lady  Marg.  (Early  Eng.  Text.  Soc), 
p.  306.  £1556,  18s.  lOJd.  was  spent  in  gorgeous  raiment  for  the 
coronation.  The  Wardrobe  Accounts  take  us  behind  the  scenes, 
and  show  us  the  material  the  king  relied  upon  for  his  effects. 
Twenty-one  tailors,  under  "  George,  the  kinges  taillour,"  and 
fifteen  skinners  had  been  working  for  three  weeks — sometimes  by 
the  light  of  lanterns  and  Paris  candles — in  a  room  securely  bolted 
and  barred  "  for  suerty  and  keeping  of  the  kinges  stuff."  For  the 
details  of  the  coronation  see  Rutland  Papers,  pp.  2-24  ;  Select  Papers 
(ed.  Ives),  pp.  93-119  ;  Fabyan,  Chronicle,  pp.  681,  683  ;  Grey  Friars 
Chron.,  p.  24;  Materials,  i.  pp.  92,  97-9,  178-84;  ii.  pp.  1-29, 
163-80. 

*  Stow,  Annates  (ed.  1615),  p.  471  ;  Ital.  Pel.,  pp.  39,  104,  105. 

"  In  September  a  grant  was  made  to  a  "  yeoman  of  the  king's 
guard  "  for  his  faithful  ser\'ice  beyond  the  sea  as  well  as  on  the 
king's  "  v'ictorieux  journeye."     Materials,  i.  p.  8. 


1485]       ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION        43 

phasised  the  royal  dignity.  Perhaps  also  "  the  crown 
upon  his  head  had  put  perils  into  his  thoughts."  ^  This 
_bo(iyguard,  increased  by  Henry  and  maintained  until 
his  death,  became  a  permanent  appanage  of  English 
royalty,  and  the  nucleus  of  the  standing  army.^ 

(^Between  the  coronation  and  the  opening  of  Parlia- 
ment the  king  probably  formed  his  cQuncil.  Its  com- 
position is  significant.  Henry  called  to  the  council 
competent  men  of  the  middle  class,  upon  whose  grati- 
tude and  obedience  he  could  rely,  as  a  set-off  against 
the  great  nobles  with  their  traditions  of  aristocratic 
defiance.  The  peers  summoned  to  the  council  were  men 
who,  like  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  the  Earls  of  Oxford, 
Derby,  and  Devon,  Lords  Willoughby  de  Broke, 
Daubeney,  Dynham,  and  Strange,  were  bound  to  the 
king  by  ties  of  blood  or  tried  loyalty.  Prominent  from 
the  first  among  the  members  of  the  council  were  two 
great  churchmen — John  Morton,  Bishop  of  Ely,  who 
became  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  the  following 
year,  and  Richard  Fox,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  "  vigilant 
men  and  secret,  and  such  as  kept  watch  with  him 
almost  upon  all  men  else."  ^  Other  councillors  who 
had  shared  the  king's  exile  were  Sir  Richard  Edge- 
combe, Sir  Reginald  Bray,  who  is  described  as  "  a 
very  father  of  his  country,  a  sage  and  grave  person, 
and  a  fervent  lover  of  justice,"  Sir  Edward  Poynings, 
and  Sir  Richard  Guildford,  both  of  whom  had  led 
risings  against  Richard  III.  Chesney,  Tunstall,  and 
Lovell  and  Sir  William  Stanley  were  men  of  the  same 

^  Bacon,  p.  35. 

*  The  yeomen  of  the  guard  were  picked  men  upon  whose  devotion 
the  king  could  rely.  They  were  often  given  posts  of  responsibility, 
— the  keeperships  of  royal  castles,  surveyorships  of  ports,  and  so  on. 
Their  wages  were  fixed  at  6d.  a  day.     See  Materials,  passim. 

*  Bacon,   p.  40. 


44  HENRY    VII  [1485 

stamp. ^  The  king  occasionally  summoned  outsiders 
to  the  council  to  give  their  advice  on  special  questions. 
This  group  of  "  occasional  councillors,"  as  Vergil  calls 
them,  included  the  Marquis  of  Dorset,  the  Earl  of 
Shrewsbury,  Thomas  Earl  of  Ormonde,  Richard  ap 
Thomas,  Morgan  Kidwelly,  Henry  Marney.  William 
Say,  Master  of  the  Horse,  William  Ody,  Gilbert 
Talbot,  William  Udal,  Thomas  Troys,  Richard  Nanfan, 
formerly  Governor  of  Calais,  Robert  Poyntz,  James 
Hubert,  Charles  Somerset,  Thomas  Howard,  Earl  of 
Surrey,  Henry  Bourchier,  Earl  of  Essex,  William 
Blount,  Lord  Mohun,  John  Bourchier,  John  Fyneux, 
Peter  Edgecombe,  Hugh  Conway,  Thomas  Tyrell, 
Henry  Wyatt,  Robert  Throgmorton,  Thomas  Brandon, 
John  Wingfield,  Edmund  Dudley.  Edward  Belknaj), 
Richard  Hemson,  and  others.  Many  of  these  men  later 
played  an  important  part  in  the  events  of  the  reign. 
Some  of  them  M^ere  the  founders  of  noble  families,  who 
served  the  State  until  the  end  of  the  Tudor  djTiasty. 
With  the  exception  of  Morton  and  Fox,  and  possibly 
of  Bray,  the  members  of  the  king's  council  were 
Henry's  servants  and  nothing  more.  They  owed 
everything  to  Henry's  gratitude,  and  echoed  rather 
than  advised  their  master.  Vergil  suggests  that  Henry 
chose  them  in  order  that  cases  referred  to  them  might 
be  decided  without  the  bitterness  of  conflict,  or  as 
Hall  paraphrases  it,  "  without  great  bearing  or  expense 
in  long  sute."  There  is  no  evidence  of  any  dispute 
between  king  and  council  throughout  the  reign.  Henry 
could  trust  it  to  carry  out  his  orders  and  reflect  his 

^  To  these  names,  all  of  which  are  given  by  Polydor  Vergil, 
Hall  adds  that  of  Sir  John  Risley,  which  is  placed  by  Polydor 
Vergil  among  the  occasional  councillors.  Pol.  Verg.,  op.  cit.,  pp. 
566-87;   Hall,  Chron.,  p.  424. 


1485]       ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION  45 

personality.  Lack  of  originality  meant  lack  of  oppo- 
sition;  the  former  the  king  supplied,  the  latter  he 
could  not  tolerate.  From  this  docility  it  came  about 
that  the  sphere  of  action  of  the  council  was  greatly 
extended  during  the  reign.  It  became  the  apt  tool  of 
despotism. 

On  7th  November  Parliament  met.  Proceedings 
began  with  an  elaBorate  sermon  by  the  Lord  Chancellor, 
Thomas  Alcock,  Bishop  of  Worcester.  Preaching  on 
the  text,  Intende,  prospere,  procede  et  regna,  he  alluded 
to  Agrippa  who  stilled  sedition  in  Rome,  reminded  his 
hearers  of  the  mutual  duties  of  subjects  and  king, 
and  spoke  of  Henry  (who  was  present  in  person)  as 
"  a  second  Joshua,  a  strenuous  and  invincible  fighter 
who  was  to  bring  in  the  golden  age."  ^  On  the  same 
day,  following  the  usual  custom,  separate  committees 
were  appointed  to  receive  and  try  petitions  from 
England,  Wales,  and  Scotland,  and  from  Gascony  and 
the  lands  beyond  the  sea.  On  Tuesday  the  Commons 
elected  Thomas  Lovell  as  their  speaker,  a  choice 
very  satisfactory  to  Henry,  as  Lovell  had  shared  his 
exile,  fought  on  Bosworth  Field,  was  a  member  of  the 
Council  and  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  The  king 
came  down  to  the  House  on  the  following  dav,  and 
made  a  short  speech  in  which  he  declared  that  his 
right  to  the  Crown  and  realm  of  England  rested  on 
"  just  title  of  inheritance  and  upon  the  true  judgment 
of  God  as  shown  by  the  sword  on  the  field  of  battle, 
giving  him  victory  over  his  enemy."  ^  At  the  same 
time  he  promised  that  all  his  subjects  of  whatever 

1  Rot.  Pad.  vi.  267,  seq. 

'  The  king's  will  mentioned  "  the  Crown  which  it  hath  pleased 
God  to  give  us  with  the  \'ictory  of  our  enemy  at  our  first  field  "  ; 
Henry  was  aware  that  he  had  obtained  his  crown  by  conquest. 


46  HENRY    VII  [1485 

rank  and  condition  should  enjoy  their  lands  and  goods 
under  his  protection ;  with  the  significant  exception 
of  "  all  such  persons  as  had  offended  his  sovereign 
majest3^"   The  nature  of  this  exception  soon  appeared. 

The  Commons  then  granted  tonnage  and  poundage 
at  fixed  rates/  with  a  subsidy  on  wool,  wool-fells,  and 
hides,  to  the  king  for  life,  "  for  the  defence  of  the 
Realm  and  in  especiall  for  the  saufeguard  and  keeping 
of  the  See,"  an  important  proviso  being  added  "  that 
these  Graunts  be  not  taken  in  ensample  to  the  Kinges 
of  England  in  tyme  to  come."  ^ 

Parliament  then  passed  to  deal  with  another  matter, 
which,  though  of  vital  importance,  had  not  been  men- 
tioned in  the  writs  of  summons — the  confirmation  of 
the  king's  title.  Henry  was  reluctant  to  appear  to 
owe  his  crown  to  an  Act  of  Parliament,  and  the 
importance  of  the  matter  had  been  studiously  mini- 
mised. The  vexed  question  that  had  involved  two 
generations  of  Englishmen  in  intrigue  and  civil  war 
was  settled,  as  far  as  Parliament  could  settle  it,  by 
a  simple  act  which  stated  "  in  covert  and  indifferent 
words,"  ^  "  that  the  inheritance  of  the  crowns  of  the 
realms  of  England  and  France,  with  all  the  pre-emi- 
nence and  dignity  royal  to  the  same  pertaining,  be, 
rest,  remain  and  abide  in  the  most  royal  person  of  our 
now  sovereign  lord  King  Harry  the  Seventh,  and  in 
the  heirs  of  his  body  lawfully  coming  perpetually 
with  the  grace  of  God  so  to  endure  and  in  none  other."  ■* 
The  wording  of  the  entail  was  a  triumph  for  the  king. 

1  The  rates  fixed  were  3s.  a  ton  on  wine,  and  12d.  in  the  pound 
on  other  merchandise. 

*  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  269.  The  Hanse  merchants  were  exempted 
from  the  operation  of  the  Act,  also  the  Staple  merchants  on  con- 
sideration of  their  paying  a  fixed  sum  to  the  garrison  of  Calais. 

'  Bacon,  op.  cit.,  p.  36.  *  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  270. 


1485]       ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION  47 

He  "would  not  endure  any  mention  of  the  Lady 
Elizabeth,"  and  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  limitation 
of  the  crown  to  his  heirs  without  binding  himself  to 
marry  the  Yorkist  })rincess.  He  escaped  conditioning 
his  kingship  with  an  obligation  which  would  have 
hinted  at  a  crown  matrimonial.  An  air  of  indifferent 
detachment,  in  which  deep  policy  lurked,  clothes  the 
words  in  which  Parliament  recognised  the  pre-emi- 
nence of  Henry's  doubtful  claim. 

The  duchies  of  Lancaster  and  Cornwall  were 
formally  confirmed  to  the  Crown,  and  the  honour  of 
Richmond  annexed  to  it.  An  Act  of  Resumjition 
restored  to  the  Crown  all  lands  belonging  to  Henry  VI. 
on  2nd  October  1455,  gifts  made  since  the  beginning 
of  the  reign  being  excepted,  and  the  rights  of  the 
king's  mother  and  of  Cecily  Duchess  of  York  being 
saved.  Vast  estates  were  thus  restored  to  the  king. 
While  making  this  generous  provision,  the  Commons 
took  the  opportunity  to  draw  attention  to  an  old 
grievance,  the  abuse  of  purveyance  for  the  royal 
household.  The  king  responded  by  initiating  a 
measure  of  financial  reform,  which  separated  the 
money  required  for  the  expenses  of  the  royal  house- 
hold and  wardrobe  from  the  revenues  of  the  State.^ 
Another  Act  reversed  the  attainders  of  the  Lan- 
castrians passed  in  the  reign  of  Richard  III.,  it  being 
provided  that  they  should  not  enter  into  possession 
of  their  property  until  the  session  was  over.-  The 
Act  was  a  pressing  necessity,  as  many  of  the  men 
returned  to  this  Parliament  had  been  attainted  and 
were  legally  disqualified  from  sitting,  and  the  judges 
had  given  the  decision  that  they  were  not  to  serve 

1  See  below,  p.  280. 

*  The  names  recited  in  this  bill  extended  to  94  lines  of  print. 


48  HENRY    VII  [1485 

in  the  House  until  their  attainders  had  been  reversed. 
The  king  himself  was  technically  an  outlaw,  but  the 
judges  decided  that  the  fact  that  he  had  taken  upon 
himself  the  supreme  authority  purged  him  from  the 
taint  of  outlawTy,  a  decision  which  added  to  the 
growing  theory  of  royal  immunity.^ 

An  Act  of  Attainder  against  the  late  king  and  his 
adherents  followed,  the  preamble  of  which  is  vindic- 
tive enough,  mentioning  as  it  does  the  "unnatural, 
mischievous,  and  great  perjuries,  treasons,  homicides, 
and  murders  in  shedding  of  infants'  blood,  with  many 
other  wrongs,  odious  offences,  and  abominations 
against  God  and  man,  and  in  especial  our  said  sovereign 
lord,  committed  and  done  by  Richard,  late  Duke  of 
Gloucester,  calling  and  naming  himself  by  usurpation 
King  Richard  the  Thirde."  By  this  Act  Henry's 
reign  was  said  by  a  legal  fiction  to  begin  on  21st 
August,  the  day  before  the  battle  of  Bosworth,  so  as 
to  bring  within  the  net  of  treason  all  who  had  borne 
arms  against  him  on  that  day.  The  attainted  persons 
were  therefore  described  in  the  Act  as  "  traitourously 
conspiring  the  destruction  of  the  king's  royal  person 
by  assembling  to  themselves  a  great  host  on  21st 
August  in  the  first  year  of  the  reign,"  a  striking 
inversion  of  the  real  facts  of  the  case.  This  expedient, 
though  convenient  at  the  moment,  was  a  dangerous 
precedent  to  set.  As  the  Monk  of  Croyland  put  it, 
"  What  security  are  our  kings  to  have  henceforth 
that  in  the  day  of  battle  they  may  not  be  deserted 
by  their  subjects  ?  "  It  has  been  described  by  one 
eminent  historian  as  "  a  notorious  lie  and  a  blot  upon 

^  All  records,  however,  of  the  king's  attsunder  were  to  be  erased. 
The  doctrine  was  that  the  C^o^Tn  took  away  ail  defecte  and  stops 
in  the  blood. 


U85]       ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION  49 

the  statute-book."  ^  Its  immorality  is  beyond  doubt, 
though  the  casuistry  dear  to  Henry  might  build  an 
argument  on  the  proclamations  made  by  the  king  on 
his  landing.  He  had  boldly  called  himself  king  while 
his  fate  was  still  in  the  balance.  This  claim,  endorsed 
by  liis  victory  at  Bosworth,  he  logically  continued  in 
prosperity.  His  views,  however,  it  must  be  confessed, 
underwent  great  modification  when  ten  years  of  king- 
ship had  given  him  sympathy  for  the  position  of  the 
king  de  facto.  The  statute  of  1495  is  the  best  con- 
demnation of  Henry's  earlier  attitude  to  Richard's 
adherents.  Among  those  whose  property  was  de- 
clared forfeited  to  the  Crown  under  this  Act  of 
Attainder  were  the  late  king,  the  Duke  of  Norfolk, 
the  Earl  of  Surrey,  and  Lords  Lovell,  Ferrers,  and 
Zouche,  and  about  twenty  knights  and  gentlemen. 
The  Act  did  not  pass  without  some  opposition,  fruit- 
less, however,  "  for  it  was  the  king's  pleasure." 

A  few  days  later,  on  19th  November,  the  king 
appeared  in  person  in  Parliament,  and  an  oath  "  for 
the  reform  of  divers  crimes  and  enormities "  was 
taken  by  certain  knights  and  gentlemen  of  the  royal 
household,  then  by  the  members  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  On  the  motion  of  the  Lord  Chancellor 
the  House  of  Lords,  consisting  of  the  Archbishop  of 
York  with  twelve  bishops,  seventeen  abbots  and 
priors,  two  dukes,  eight  earls,  one  viscount,  and  seven 
barons  took  the  oath,  each  with  his  left  hand  on  his 
breast  and  his  right  on  a  copy  of  the  gospels.  By  the 
terms  of  the  oath  they  swore  not  to  "  receive,  aid,  or 
comfort  murderers,  felons,  or  outlaws,  not  to  reteine 
any  man  by  indenture  or  othe,  not  to  give  liverie, 
signe,  or  token  contrary  to  law,  or  make,  cause  to  be 

^  Dr.  Gairdner  in  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.,  Intro,  xxxi. 

D 


50  HENRY    VII  [1485 

made,  or  assent  to  any  maintenance,  imbracerie,  riotts, 
or  unlawful  assemblie,  not  to  hinder  the  execution  of 
royal  writs,  nor  lett  any  known  felon  to  bail  or 
mainprise."  ^ 

The  oath  taken  with  such  solemnity  was  un- 
palatable enough.  The  nobles  bound  themselves  to 
abjure  their  cherished  weapons  of  riot  and  rebellion. 
It  struck  at  the  source  of  their  power,  and  threatened 
to  reduce  them  to  the  despised  level  of  the  obedient 
small  men.  The  king,  however,  had  the  driving 
power  of  a  strong  will,  and  the  prestige  of  recent 
victory  behind  him.  The  "  much  runyng  among  the 
Lords,"  recorded  in  a  contemporary  letter,-  ended 
in  obedience. 

On  the  10th  of  December,  the  king  being  present 
to  prorogue  Parliament,  a  petition  of  the  Commons 
was  presented  by  the  Speaker,  asking  the  king  to 
marry  the  Lady  Elizabeth  of  York.  At  once  the 
lords  spiritual  and  temporal  rose  in  their  seats, 
standing  before  the  throne,  and,  bowing  their  heads, 
made  the  same  request.  All  reference  to  Henry's 
earlier  promise  to  make  Elizabeth  his  wife  was 
tactfully  omitted,  and  the  king  briefly  replied  that 
he  was  willing  to  proceed  according  to  their  desire 
and  request.  Then,  after  a  short  speech  from  the 
Chancellor,  urging  them  to  take  care  in  putting  down 
violence  and  disorder,  especially  to  repress  the  vaga- 
bonds who  were  "  running  about  the  country  spread- 
ing discords  and  lies  under  colour  of  begging," 
Parliament  was  prorogued  until  23rd  January. 

This  first  session  of  Parliament  had  been  an 
important    one.     Henry    had    clothed    his   conquest 

^  Rot.  Pari,  vi.,  278;  see  also  Rot.  Pari.,  iv.  344,  422. 
*  Plumpton  Correspondence  (Camden  Soc). 


1485-6]     ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION        51 

with  the  forms  of  law.  His  adherents  had  been  re- 
warded, and  his  enemies  punished  under  strict  legal 
forms.  Violent  usurpation  and  tyranny  seemed  to 
have  given  place  to  a  dynasty  wedded  by  choice  and 
necessity,  as  well  as  by  Lancastrian  tradition,  to  a 
Parliamentary  form  of  government.  The  session  had 
had  a  reassuring  effect  upon  the  popular  mind.  The 
new  king  had  shown  strength  of  mind  and  purpose ; 
it  was  clear  that  he  meant  to  be  obeyed.  Contem- 
porary writers  were  not  blind  to  the  promise  of  the 
new  reign.  "  The  king,"  wrote  an  Italian  to  the 
Pope  in  December,  "  shows  himself  very  prudent  and 
clement :  all  things  appear  disposed  towards  peace."  ^ 

The  king  spent  the  rest  of  the  month  in  London 
making  preparations  for  his  marriage.  In  addition 
he  had  the  task  of  paying  the  late  king's  debts  as 
well  as  his  own.  Among  the  former  he  redeemed  a 
"  salt  of  gold,  a  coronall  of  gold,"  and  other  plate 
pledged  by  Richard.  Other  obligations  were  more 
pressing,  and  Henry  had  to  apply  to  the  city  for  a 
loan  of  6000  marks.  Part  of  the  money  was  applied 
to  the  release  of  the  Marquis  of  Dorset  and  Sir  John 
Bourchier,  who  were  still  in  Paris  as  sureties  for  the 
money  advanced  to  Henry  by  the  King  of  France. 
Debts  due  in  respect  of  the  pay  of  the  Calais  garrison, 
and  for  armour  bought  for  the  king  during  his  exile 
in  France,  were  paid  about  the  same  time. 

Messengers  had  been  sent  to  Rome  to  obtain  bulls 
for  the  marriage,  but  on  18th  January  1485-6,  before 
the  brief  arrived,  the  long-delayed  marriage  was 
solemnised  under  a  dispensation  obtained  from  the 
Papal  legate,  James,  Bishop  of  Imola.     There  is  an 

^  Cal.  of  State  Papers  (Foreign  Series),  Venetian  (ed.  Brown),  i. 
No.  506. 


52  HENRY    VII  [i486 

appearance  of  haste  about  this  after  the  long  delay. 
Perhaps  Henry,  with  his  instinct  for  catching  the 
drift  of  public  opinion,  found  his  Yorkist  supporters 
chafing  at  the  delay.^  The  marriage  was  received 
with  many  signs  of  popular  approval.  As  Hall  said, 
"  By  reason  of  this  marriage,  peace  was  thought  to 
discende  oute  of  heaven  into  England."  - 

In  one  part  of  England  the  temper  was  anything 
but  peaceful.  The  North,  the  stronghold  of  the 
Yorkist  party,  was  restless  and  dissatisfied,  and  sedi- 
tion flourished  dangerously  near  the  Scotch  border. 
In  the  county  and  city  of  York,  the  hostility  to  the 
new  king  was  pronounced.  The  corporation  had 
expressed  its  regret  at  the  result  of  the  battle  of 
Bosworth,  and  had  boldly  resisted  the  king  when 
their  Recorder,  one  of  the  Yorkists  exempted  from 
the  general  pardon,  had  been  deprived  of  office.  A 
great  agitation  had  been  got  up  in  his  favour,  which 
the  king  seems  to  have  been  either  unable  or  un- 
willing to  resist.  He  was  reluctant  to  alienate  the 
city,  when  trouble  was  threatening  on  the  border.^ 
The  state  of  feeling  in  York  continued  to  give 
ground  for  uneasiness.  On  24th  December  the  king 
sent  down  a  letter  ordering  a  search  to  be  made  in 

1  The  Papal  bull  confinning  the  action  of  the  legate  was  dated 
Gth  March,  and  an<jther  buU  was  issued  on  27th  Slarch  excom- 
municating any  one  who  rebelled  against  the  king.  R}^ne^,  Fcudera, 
xii.  294,  297-99. 

2  Upon  Bacon's  suggestion  that  the  rejoicings  were  not  liked  by 
Henry,  and  that  ho  showed  himself  "  no  very  indulgent  husband," 
an  imaginative  structure  was  subsequently  reared.    See  below,  p.  386. 

3  After  writing  two  letters  to  the  city  expressing  his  determina- 
tion to  uphold  the  man  who  had  replaced  the  dispossessed  Recorder, 
suddenly  within  throe  days  (3Uth  November  to  3rd  December)  the 
king  changed  his  mind  and  sent  down  a  writ  de  non  molestando. 
Gentlemun's  Magazine  (New  Series),  xxxv.,  1851,  pp.  164-70. 


Emery  Walker,  Photo 
ELIZABETH   OF   YORK 
Queen  Consort  ot  Henry  VH 
1466—1502 
From  the  painting,  by  an  unknown  artist,  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery 


1486]      ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION  53 

every  household  in  the  city  every  night,  beginning  at 
eight  o'clock,  for  "  vagabonds,  idlers,  beggars,  and 
suspect  persons."  ^  A  truce  was  made  vnth  Scotland 
on  30th  January  1485-6  which  removed  the  most 
pressing  danger,  but  as  soon  as  Henry  was  able  to 
leave  London,  after  the  dissolution  of  Parliament,  he 
determined  to  make  a  royal  progress  through  the 
disaffected  districts.  He  started  early  in  March,  with 
all  the  great  nobles  of  his  court  in  his  train,  and 
rode  by  way  of  Cambridge,  where  he  was  honour- 
ably received  by  both  the  town  and  the  univer- 
sity, through  Huntingdon  and  Stamford  to  Lincoln. 
There  he  kept  Easter  Day  devoutly,  washing  the 
feet  of  twenty-nine  poor  men,  and  giving  alms  to 
the  poor,  to  the  prisoners  and  lepers.  At  Lincoln 
he  heard  that  Francis,  Lord  Lovell,  and  Humphrey 
and  Thomas  Stafford  had  fled  from  Colchester,  where 
they  had  remained  in  sanctuary  since  the  battle  of 
Bosworth,  and  that  no  one  knew  to  what  part  of  the 
country  they  had  gone.  Henry,  however,  "  lytle 
regard yng  the  tale,"  continued  his  progress,  and 
advanced,  "  without  any  bay  ting  by  cause  they  died 
at  Newark,"  to  Nottingham,  which  he  reached  on 
Tuesday,  11th  April. ^  Then  he  heard  the  news  of 
a  rising  in  Yorkshire.  He  hastily  summoned  the 
men  of  Lincoln  to  his  standard,  ordering  them  to 
come  unarmed,  evidently  underrating  the  importance 
of  the  rising,  and  advanced  to  Doncaster,  where  he 
stayed  over  Sunday.     Just  beyond  Doncaster  he  was 

1  Gentleman  8  Magazine  (New  Series),  xxxv.,  1851,  pp.  169-70. 

2  Sir  Hugh  Conway  is  said  to  have  given  the  information  to  the 
king,  who  "  seiid  it  could  not  be  so,  and  reeisoned  always  to  the 
contrary  with  liim,"  being  much  displeased  that  Conway  did  not 
give  the  name  of  his  informant.     L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  234. 


54  HENRY    VII  [use 

joined  by  the  Earl  of  Northumberland,  who  brought 
all  the  territorial  influence  of  his  great  family  to  the 
king's  side.  Henry  reached  Pontefract  on  Monday 
and  stayed  there  until  IHsiirsday,  20th  April,  and 
daily  large  numbers  of  the  local  magnates,  who  had 
hastily  armed  at  the  news  of  the  revolt,  joined  him. 
On  his  advance  towards  York,  the  king  heard  that 
Lord  Lovell  was  about  to  attack  the  city,  and  that  a 
simultaneous  attack  was  to  be  made  upon  Worcester 
by  the  Staffords,  who  had  got  together  a  large  force. 
It  was  a  critical  moment.  Henry  was  in  great  danger. 
His  men  were  not  equipped  for  war,  and  he  was  close  to 
a  city  which  had  been  the  heart  of  the  Yorkist  cause, 
and  was  still  devoted  to  King  Richard's  memory.^ 
Henry,  however,  acted  promptly.  The  Duke  of 
Bedford  was  despatched  at  once  with  3000  lightly 
armed  men  to  attack  Lovell.  When  he  came  upon 
the  insurgents  he  proclaimed  that  all  who  laid  down 
their  arms  and  submitted  would  be  pardoned.  The 
proclamation  took  the  heart  from  Lovell's  host,  and, 
deserted  by  their  leader,  who  fled  in  the  night  into 
Lancashire,  they  laid  down  their  arms  and  surrendered 
to  the  duke.2  At  the  news  of  Lovell's  failure, 
Humphrey  Stafford  gave  up  the  plan  of  attacking 
Worcester,  and  fled  with  his  brother  to  sanctuary 
near  Abingdon.  The  Court  of  King's  Bench,  however, 
decided  that  the  right  of  sanctuary  would  not  cover 
men  accused  of  high  treason.  This  important  ruling, 
which  deprived  traitors  of  their  chief  refuge  against 
the  power  of  the  Crown,  led  to  the  Staffords  being 

1  Qent.  Mag.  (N.  S.),  xxxv.  481-83.  A  plot  to  seize  the  king 
just  escaped  success. 

*  Vergil  and  Hall  credit  the  duke  witli  the  idea  of  this  proclama- 
tion.    Pol.  Verg.,  p.  669  ;   Hall,  p.  427. 


1486]      ENGLAND    AT   THE    ACCESSION  55 

taken  out  of  sanctuary,  and  removed  to  the  Tower. 
Humphrey  Stafford  was  executed  at  Tyburn.  His 
younger  brother  Thomas  was  pardoned,  as  it  was 
decided  that  he  had  been  l^^into  the  rebelHon  by  his 
brother.  Lovell  remaine«P  hiding,  and  early  in  the 
following  year  fled  to  Burgundy. 

Henry  advanced  in  triumph  to  York,  which  he 
reached  on  22nd  April.  Five  miles  out  of  the  city 
the  mayor  and  aldermen  rode  forth  to  meet  him, 
and  a  great  crowd  of  citizens  welcomed  him  with 
shouts  of  "  King  Henry — King  Henry  !  Our  Lorde 
preserve  that  swete  and  well  faverde  face."  There 
were  many  pageants  in  honour  of  his  arrival,  the 
"  King  Solomon "  of  one  of  them  addressing  the 
king  as  "  most  prudent  prince  of  provid  provision, 
sovereign  in  sapience,"  and  so  on.  Another  displayed 
a  royal  rich  red  rose,  and  a  rich  white  rose  crowned 
coming  out  of  a  cloud  with  the  other  flowers  "  lowting 
low."  The  city  was  gorgeously  adorned  with  tapestries, 
and  from  the  windows  hailed  down  "  comfetts  as  it 
had  been  haylstones."  ^  The  king's  generosity  in 
announcing  that  he  would  not  expect  the  customary 
present  of  money  from  the  city  owing  to  its  poverty 
led  to  a  lavish  present  of  provisions  being  enthusi- 
astically voted.-  After  a  Te  Deum  in  York  Minster, 
the  king  withdrew  to  his  lodging  in  the  archbishop's 
palace.  From  York  Henry  moved  through  Doncaster, 
Nottingham,  and  Birmingham  to  Worcester,  where 
he  spent  Whitsuntide,  being  received  with  the  usual 
shows  and  pageants.  One  orator,  having  compared 
him  to  Noah,  Jason,  Julius  Caesar,  Abraham,  Isaac, 
Jacob,    David,    and   Scipio,    welcomed  him   as   the 

1  Leland,  Collectanea,  iv.  185;   Gent.  Mag.  (N.  S.),  xxxv.  481-86; 
Surtees  Soc.  Public,  vol.  85,  pp.  53-7.  «  Ibid. 


56  HENRY   VII  [use 

lineal  descendant  of  Cadwallader,  "  the  very  Britain 
king  "  !  After  visiting  Hereford  and  Gloucester,  the 
king  proceeded  to  Bristol,  then  the  second  or  third 
city  of  the  kingdom.  As  he  rode  through  the  city  a 
woman  threw  down  wheat  from  her  window,  crying, 
"  Welcome  and  good  luck  !  "  Again  he  was  received 
with  pageants,  but  the  orators  on  this  occasion  spoke 
in  a  less  heroic  and  more  practical  strain  than  usual, 
bewailing  the  decay  of  Bristol,  which  they  thought 
was  due  specially  to  the  decline  of  the  navy  and  the 
decay  of  the  cloth  trade.  The  king  showed  his 
sympathy  with  their  complaints  and  gave  audience 
to  the  maj'or  and  aldermen,  encouraging  them  to 
build  new  ships  to  make  up  for  their  heavy  losses 
during  the  last  live  years.  On  the  folIo^^ing  day 
Henry  left  for  London,  leaving  behind  him  golden 
opinions,  the  mayor  saying  that  "  they  harde  not  this 
hundred  yeres  of  noo  king  so  good  a  comfort."  ^  On 
the  5th  of  June  the  king  came  by  water  from  Sheen 
to  the  capital  and,  being  welcomed  home  by  the  mayor, 
had  a  Te  Deum  sung  in  the  Abbey. 

About  this  time  he  received  an  embassy  from 
Scotland,  and  after  their  departure  the  king  left 
London.  He  was  at  Sheen  on  12th  August,-  and 
afterwards  went  westwards  to  hunt  in  the  New 
Forest.  In  September  Henry  was  in  Winchester,  and 
there,  on  the  20th  of  the  month,  his  son  and  heir  was 
born.^  This  important  event  was  celebrated  by  Te 
Deums  and  proces^ons,  and  by  lighting  bonfires  in  the 
streets.      The  bate  was  christened  on  the  following 

1  Leland,  CoUectanea,  iv.  185-200. 
*  Paston  Letters,  iii.  329./ 

3  Andre,  Vita,  p.  41 ;  Lfeland,  Collect.,  iv.  204;  Pol.  Verg.,  p.  569; 
Hall,  p.  428. 

/^ 


1486]      ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION  57 

Sunday  with  great  pomp,  receiving  the  name  of  Arthur 
in  honour  of  the  mythical  Celtic  ancestor  of  the  House 
of  Tudor.  ^  Winchester  Cathedral  was  hung  with  arras, 
the  prince  being  borne  to  the  font  under  a  crimson 
canopy  by  the  Lady  Cecily,  the  queen's  eldest  sister. 
The  infant  wore  a  mantle  of  crimson  cloth  of  gold, 
trimmed  with  ermine,  with  a  long  train  borne  by  Sir 
John  Chesney  and  the  Marchioness  of  Dorset. ^  When 
the  queen  had  recovered  from  an  attack  of  ague  (to 
which  she  was  always  subject)  the  court  moved  to 
Greenwich  and  remained  there  over  Christmas.  The 
king's  position  was  infinitely  stronger  after  the  birth 
of  an  heir,  who  fused  the  claims  of  the  rival  royal 
houses.     The  new  dynasty  had  its  hand  on  the  future. 

But  it  was  only  on  the  surface  that  there  was  peace. 
The  leaders  of  the  Yorkist  party  were  discontented ; 
the  union  of  the  roses  had  brought  them  no  profit,  the 
chief  offices  of  state  and  the  king's  confidence  had 
been  bestowed  upon  Lancastrians,  and  the  delay  in 
the  queen's  coronation  aggravated  their  dissatisfaction. 
The  country  was  full  of  strange  rumours  that  fed 
the  hopes  of  the  Yorkists.  The  claims  of  the  im- 
prisoned Earl  of  Warwick  were  a  topic  of  discussion 
as  early  as  November  1486,^  and  a  sinister  rumour 
spread  that  the  king  was  to  be  another  King  Richard, 
and  that  he  proposed  to  murder  the  boy.  Another 
report  was  that  one  of  the  sons  of  Edward  IV.  was 
still  living.  "Thus,"  says  Bacon,  "was  fuel  pre- 
pared for  the  spark  that  afterwards  kindled  such  a 
fire  and  combustion." 

It  was  at  Oxford  that  the  spark  of  sedition  was  lit. 

^  Leland,  Collectanea,  iv.  204^6. 

*  The  king  is  not  mentioned  as  being  present. 

'  Plumpton  Correap.,  p.  64. 


58  HENRY   VII  [1487 

The  rumour  that  the  young  Duke  of  York  still  lived 
bred  in  the  "  fantasticall  ymagination "  of  a  priest 
named  Richard  Symons  the  idea  of  making  one  of  his 
pupils  personate  him.  This  pupil  was  Lambert  Simnel, 
"  one  of  gentle  nature  and  pregnant  wit,"  and  though 
of  poor  parentage  "  not  without  extraordinary  dignity 
and  grace  of  aspect."  ^  The  later  report  that  the  young 
Earl  of  Warwick  had  escaped,  and  the  rejoicings  with 
which  this  rumour  was  received,  led  Simon  to  change 
the  boy's  role  to  that  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick.  He  suc- 
ceeded in  instilling  into  the  boy  sufficient  knowledge 
of  "  princely  behaviour,  civil  manners,  and  fruitful 
literature  "  to  deceive  the  important  Yorkists,  to 
whom  he  was  afterwards  presented,  who  were  perhaps 
not  inclined  to  scrutinise  too  closely  the  pretensions 
of  a  pretender  who  served  their  purpose.  The  priest 
showed  great  skill  in  the  place  he  chose  for  the  first 
appearance  of  his  protege.  The  leading  men  in 
Ireland  were  devotedly  Yorkist,-  and  the  nobles,  with 
Celtic  enthusiasm,  instantly  accepted  the  boy  on  his 
arrival  in  January  1486-7  as  the  young  Earl  of  War- 
wick. This  "  feigned  fable  and  ymagined  juggling  " 
was  passed  from  one  to  another  and  accepted  as  truth. 
The  Earl  of  Kildare,  who  was  Lord  Deputy  and  the 
most  powerful  man  in  Ireland,  espoused  the  boy's 
cause  and  lodged  him  in  his  castle.  His  brother,  the 
Chancellor,  joined,  and  men,  arms,  and  money  poured 
in.^  Messengers  were  sent  to  the  Yorkist  party  in 
England,  and  to  the  Dowager-Duchess  of  Burgundy 
to  enlist  her  sympathy. 

1  He  was  probably  the  son  of  an  organ-builder  {Carew Papers,  472), 
though  his  father  is  elsewhere  described  as  a  carpenter,  a  baker,  and 
a  tailor.  Rot.  Pari,  vi.  397 ;  Andr6,  Vita,  49. 

*  See  below,  p.  291.  ^  Carew  Papers  (Misc.),  388,  472-4. 


1487]      ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION  59 

The  court  of  the  dowager-duchess  had  long  been 
a  refuge  of  fugitive  Yorkists.^  As  the  sister  of 
Edward  IV.,  she  was  consumed  with  hatred  of  the 
House  of  Lancaster.  "  Inflamed  with  malyce  dia- 
bohcall  she  invented  and  practised  all  mischiefes, 
displeasures,  and  dammages  that  she  could  devyse 
against  the  Kyng  of  England."-  She  had  "the 
spirit  of  a  man  and  the  malice  of  a  woman,"  says 
Bacon.  Wealthy  and  childless,  she  was  ready  to 
devote  the  whole  of  her  very  considerable  ability  to 
an  attempt  to  overthrow  Henry  VII.,  "  against  whom 
she  bare  a  mortal  hatred."  In  her  "  fury  and  frantike 
mood  "  she  promised  to  help  the  conspirators. 

The  affair  had  reached  this  point  when  news  that 
a  pretender  had  been  set  up  against  him  in  Ireland 
reached  the  king.  Henry  was  then  at  Sheen,  where  on 
2nd  February  1486-7  he  held  a  council  to  decide  on  the 
necessary  measures  of  precaution.^  The  murmuring 
and  discontent  in  England  had  already  led  to  a  few 
rebels  being  proclaimed,  among  others  Sir  Henry 
Bodrugan,  who  had  been  stirring  up  sedition  in  Devon 
and  Cornwall.^  On  the  news  of  Lovell's  escape, 
Henry  decided  to  issue  a  general  pardon  for  all 
offences,  even  for  high  treason,  to  all  who  submitted. 
There  could  be  no  greater  proof  of  the  king's  uneasi- 
ness. His  throne  was  undermined  by  a  conspiracy 
he  was  not  strong  enough  to  punish.  He  tried, 
therefore,  to  detach  some  of  its  supporters  by  this  offer 
of  a  pardon.  As  a  second  measure  of  jDrecaution  the 
captive  earl  was  to  be  led  through  London  to  expose 

^  The  latest  arrival  was  Lord  Lovell,  who  had  fled  there  in 
January. 

*  Hall,  Chron.  p.  430.  »  Leland,  Collectanea,  iv.  208. 

«  L.  and  P.,  ii.  369  ;   Paeton  Letters,  iii.  329. 


60  HENRY    VII  [1487 

the  imposture  of  the  claimant  in  Ireland.  A  third 
measure,  an  unexpected  and  mysterious  one,  was 
decided  upon  at  this  council.  It  was  directed  against 
the  queen-dowager.  Her  jointure  lands  were  con- 
fiscated, a  pension  of  400  marks  only  being  allowed 
her,  and  she  was  assigned  apartments  in  the  abbey 
of  Bermondsey.^  No  cause  was  publicly  assigned 
for  these  proceedings.  The  vague  expression,  "  for 
various  considerations,"  used  in  the  Act  certainly 
shrouds  a  mystery.  Various  suggestions  of  the  cause 
of  the  queen's  disgrace  have  been  put  forward.  Vergil 
states  that  it  was  the  punishment  of  the  queen's 
treachery  to  Henry  in  surrendering  her  daughters 
to  King  Richard.  His  authority,  though  constantly 
first-rate  on  matters  of  fact,  is  not  always  to  be 
followed  on  the  question  of  the  king's  motives. 
This  betrayal  had  been  long  since  condoned.  The 
queen-dowager's  estates  had  been  restored  by  Henry's 
first  Parliament,  and  she  had  since  enjoyed  the  king's 
favour.  Hatred  of  the  House  of  York,  the  motive 
suggested  by  Bacon  and  those  who  followed  him, 
may  also  be  dismissed.  Henry  was  too  cautious  a 
man  to  attack  a  prominent  Yorkist  at  this  inop- 
portune moment  without  other  motive  than  blind 
hatred  of  a  family  to  which  he  had  shown  honour  in 
the  person  of  his  queen.-  It  is  more  reasonable  to  con- 
nect her  disgrace  with  the  conspiracy  then  on  foot, 
and  to  suppose  that  she  may  have  been  implicated 
in  it  to  some  extent.     She  was  certainly  an  indiscreet, 

1  Materiala,  ii.  148-9,  265,  302  ;  Privy  Purse  Expenses  oj  Eliz.  of 
York,  ed.  Nicolas,  Intro.  Ixxvii.-lxxix. 

*  This  hypothetical  hatred,  too,  did  not  prevent  Henry  from 
granting  the  queen-dowager's  forfeited  lands  to  the  queen.  The 
grant  was  confirmed  by  Henry's  second  Peirliament.  Rot.  Pari., 
vi  386. 


MARGARET   OF   YORK 
From  the  picture  in  the  possession  ot  the  Society  of  Antiquaries 


1487]       ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION         61 

capricious  woman.  No  evidence,  however,  survives 
to  connect  her  with  the  plot,  and  the  question  cannot 
be  decided.  A  balancing  of  probabilities  remains. 
No  legal  proceedings  were  taken  against  her,  but  the 
fact  that  no  reason  was  assigned  for  her  retirement 
and  the  forfeiture  of  her  property  hints  at  a  desire 
to  hide  the  fact  that  those  near  the  king's  person  were 
implicated  in  the  plot,  and  perhaps  to  spare  the  queen 
consort  the  disgrace.^ 

At  this  moment  the  conspirators  gained  over  a 
very  important  convert,  John  de  la  Pole,  Earl  of 
Lincoln.  He  had  been  chosen  as  his  heir  by  Richard 
III.,  and  though  he  had  been  received  into  favour 
by  Henry,  was  ill  content  with  the  loss  of  his  brilliant 
prospects.  Thwarted  ambition  made  him  join  the 
plot.  For  some  time  he  wore  the  mask  of  loyalty, 
and  was  actually  present  at  the  Council  held  at  Sheen, 
but  a  little  later  he,  with  Sir  Thomas  Broughton  and 
others  of  less  note,  fled  to  join  Lovell  at  the  court  of 
his  aunt,  the  Duchess  Margaret. 

The  king  returned  to  London,  and  on  the  Sunday 
following  the  Earl  of  Warwick  was  taken  from  the 
Tower  along  the  principal  streets  of  the  city  to  St. 
Paul's,  where  many  of  the  nobles  suspected  of  com- 
plicity in  Simnel's  conspiracy  were  given  an  oppor- 
tunity of  talking  to  him.  After  Lincoln's  escape, 
the  king  ordered  that  strict  watch  should  be  kept 
along  the  east  coast  to  prevent  the  escape  of  other 
traitors,  and  to  guard  against  invasion  from  Flanders. 
Commissions  of  array  were  issued  on  7th  April  and 

^  Vergil's  accoiint  of  the  queen-dowager  as  spending  the  rest 
of  her  life  in  misery  seems  to  be  shghtly  overdrawn.  Three  years 
later  her  annuity  was  increased  (Pat.  5  Hen.  VII.,  m.  20)  and  she 
afterwards  appeared  at  court.     Leland,  Collectanea,  iv.  249. 


62  HENRY    VII  [1487 

the  beacons  were  set  in  order.  ^  Leaving  London  in 
the  second  week  in  Lent  the  king  made  a  tour  through 
the  eastern  counties  that  were  nearest  to  the 
threatened  danger.  He  rode  through  Essex  to  Bury 
St.  Edmunds  in  Suffolk,  and  thence  to  Norwich,  where 
he  kept  Easter.-  There  he  heard  that  the  Marquis 
of  Dorset  was  coming  to  him  to  explain  and  excuse 
"  certeyne  thynges  he  was  suspected  to  have  done 
lightely  while  he  was  in  France."  Henry  thought  it 
best,  however,  to  be  on  the  safe  side,  and  ordered  the 
Earl  of  Oxford  to  conduct  him  to  the  Tower.  On 
Easter  Monday  the  king  made  a  pilgrimage  to  the 
famous  shrine  at  Walsingham,  and  then  leaving  the 
eastern  counties  rode  by  way  of  Cambridge,  Hunting- 
don, and  Northampton  to  Coventry,  which  he  reached 
on  22nd  April.  On  the  following  day  he  kept  the 
Feast  of  St.  George  with  great  ceremony.  The  Papal 
bulls  "  touching  the  king's  and  the  queen's  right  " 
were  read,  and  those  who  resisted  Henry  were  cursed 
with  bell,  book,  and  candle. 

Meanwhile  in  Flanders  the  conspirators  were  ready 
for  action.  Lincoln  and  Lovell  appear  to  have  decided 
that  it  would  be  wise  to  support  the  Irish  rebellion. 
Lincoln's  attitude  in  taking  up  the  cause  of  a  boy 
whom  he  must  have  known  to  be  a  pretender,  has  been 
explained  by  the  theory  that  he  meant  to  use  Simnel 
as  a  catspaw,  and  if  the  revolt  succeeded  to  remove 
him   to   make   way   for   a   new  Plantagenet.^     Two 

^  On  4th  March  Thomas  Brandon  was  put  in  command  of  an 
armed  force  "  about  to  proceed  to  sea  against  the  king's  enemies 
there  cruising."     Materials,  ii.  104,  106. 

*  Both  Polydor  Vergil  (p.  672)  and  Hall  (p.  433)  give  Christmas 
instead  of  Easter,  an  obvious  mistake.  See  Collectanea,  iv.  209. 
The  corrected  draft  for  Vergil's  history  preserved  in  the  Vatican 
Library  gives  the  right  date.    Hist.  Soc.  Trans.,  Ser.  II.,  vol.  XNn.  1-17. 

*  Polydor  Vergil,  op.  cU.,  p.  572. 


1487]       ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION  63 

thousand  German  mercenaries  had  been  got  together 
by  the  help  of  the  duchess,  and  early  in  ]May  the 
whole  force  sailed  for  Ireland  under  the  command 
of  one  Martin  Swart,  landing  on  5th  May.  Practi- 
cally the  whole  country,  with  the  important  exception 
of  Waterford,  which  remained  loyal  to  Henry,  had 
espoused  the  cause  of  the  pretender,  and  on  24th  May 
Lambert  Simnel  was  crowned  King  of  England  in 
Dublin  Cathedral  under  the  title  of  Edward  VI.  He 
was  afterwards  taken  in  procession  through  the 
streets  of  Dublin  and  received  with  great  enthusiasm. 
The  bishops  and  nobles  took  an  oath  of  allegiance 
to  him.  Writs  were  issued  for  a  Parliament  in  the 
name  of  the  crowned  adventurer,  and  new  coin, 
struck  in  June,  bore  the  name  of  Edward  VI.  Con- 
fident of  success,  Simnel  and  his  supporters  were  eager 
to  try  their  fortune  in  England.  In  June  the  pretender, 
'"  with  a  great  multitude  of  beggerly  Irishmen  allmost 
all  naked  and  unarmed  sa\^'nge  skaynes  and  man- 
telles,"  under  Lord  Thomas  Fitzgerald,  sailed  for 
England.  They  landed  on  the  coast  of  Lancashire 
— near  Furness  Fells — on  4th  June,  hoping  to  join 
forces  with  Sir  Thomas  Broughton. 

The  king  was  at  Kenilworth  when  he  heard — from 
a  loyal  Irishman,  the  lord  of  Howth — that  Lincoln 
and  Lovell  had  landed  in  Ireland.^  He  at  once  sent 
some  of  his  nobles  to  raise  troops  in  their  own 
counties,  thinking  "  he  should  be  well  enough  able 
to  scatter  the  Irish  as  a  flight  of  birds,  and  rattle 
away  this  swarm  of  bees  with  their  king."  ^ 
At  Kenilworth  he  was  joined  by  the  queen,  the 
Countess  of   Richmond,    and  the   Earl   of   Ormond, 

1  Original  Letters  (ed.  Ellis),  i.  (1),  18. 

*  Bacon,  op.  cit.,  p.  55;  Materials,  ii.  135. 


64  HENRY    VII  [U87 

and  there  the  landing  in  Lancashire  was  reported  to 
him  by  one  of  the  horsemen  he  had  sent  to  watch 
the  western  coast.  The  Duke  of  Bedford  and  the 
Earl  of  Oxford  were  given  command  of  the  royal 
forces.  Very  stringent  proclamations  were  made  to 
secure  good  order  among  the  troops.  Sacrilege  and 
violence  were  forbidden  on  pain  of  death,  there  was 
to  be  no  forcible  levy  of  proWsions,  no  fighting  or 
quarrelling  in  the  host,  no  shouting  or  blowing  of 
horns  after  the  watch  was  set,  and  so  on.  At  the 
same  time  no  one  was  to  be  molested  on  the  pretext 
of  any  offence  formerly  committed  against  the  king.^ 
From  Kenilworth  Henry  returned  to  Coventry,  where 
he  was  joined  by  a  large  force  under  the  Earl  of 
Devon.  Thence  he  marched  to  Leicester  and  Lough- 
borough, where  the  *'  stokkes  and  prisones  were 
reasonabley  filled  "  with  offenders  against  the  pro- 
clamations. Meanwhile  Lincoln  had  led  his  men  into 
Yorkshire  and  "  passed  softely  on  his  journey  without 
the  spoilyng  or  hurtyng  of  any  man."  He  did  not 
meet  with  the  increase  of  strength  he  had  hoped  for, 
and  continued  his  advance  towards  Newark.  Henry 
had  marched  to  Nottingham,  where  he  was  joined  by 
a  large  force  "  inow  to  have  beten  all  the  king's 
enemies."  Thursday  and  Friday  nights  were  en- 
livened by  "  a  great  skrye  or  false  alarm  which  caused 
many  cowards  to  flee."  On  Saturday  morning,  16th 
June,  the  king  rose  early  and,  after  hearing  two 
Masses,  led  his  host  to  cut  off  the  foe  on  the  road  to 
Newark.  Before  nine  o'clock  he  had  reached  Stoke,  a 
village  a  mile  out  of  the  town,  where  he  met  the  rebel 
army.  The  battle  was  fiercely  contested  :  the  German 
veterans  under  their  experienced  leader  and  the  half 

1   Leland,  Collectanea,  iv.  210-12. 


1487]      ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION  65 

savage,  rudely  armed  Irishmen,  fought  desperately. 
For  three  hours  the  issue  of  the  fight  was  doubtful, 
but  rebel  valour  was  no  match  for  the  royal  artillery 
and  the  victory  lay  with  the  king.^ 

The  desperate  nature  of  the  struggle  appears  from 
the  fact  that  nearly  all  the  rebel  leaders — Lincoln.  Loi'd 
Thomas  Fitzgerald,  Sir  Thomas  Broughton,  and  Martin 
Schwartz — with  about  four  thousand  of  the  rank  and 
file,  perished.  Lovell  disappeared  after  the  battle  and 
his  fate  is  a  mystery.^  The  loss  on  the  king's  side 
was  not  nearly  so  heavy.  His  victory  was  signalised  by 
the  creation  of  thirteen  knights  banneret  and  fifty-two 
other  knights,  among  them  being  Sir  John  Paston  of 
the  Paston  Letters.  Lambert  Simnel  and  the  priest, 
Richard  Symons,  were  both  captured  during  the 
battle.  The  latter  passed  from  the  page  of  history 
into  lifelong  captivity,  but  his  tool  was  treated  by 
Henry  Avith  contemptuous  lenience.  The  boy  who 
had  been  crowned  with  great  pomp  as  Edward  VI. 
of  England  became  a  scullion  in  the  king's  kitchen 
and  afterwards  one  of  the  royal  falconers.  It  was 
novel  treatment  for  a  defeated  pretender.  Henry's 
scornful  clemency  was  judicious,  and  the  presence  of 
Simnel  in  the  royal  household  kept  alive  a  "  continual 
spectacle  "  and  galling  reminder  of  the  fate  of  un- 

^  It  appears  that  only  the  vanguard  of  the  king's  army  had 
come  into  action.  Eot.  Pari.,  vi.  397;  Carew  Papers,  189;  Harl. 
MS.,  541,  fo.  218  b. 

*  Vergil  says  that  he  was  killed  in  battle,  another  authority 
that  he  fled  and  was  drowned  while  trying  to  cross  the  Trent,  a 
third  story  is  that  he  Uved  a  long  time  in  concealment  in  a  secret 
room  at  Minster  Lovell,  where  he  died.  See  Andre,  Vita,  pp.  49-52  ; 
Leland,  Collectanea,  iv.  209-13;  Pol.  Verg.,  pp.  574—5,  for  accounts 
of  the  battle.  Lovell's  attainder  was  "  ignorauntly  lefte  oute  and 
omitted  "  in  the  Parhament  that  followed,  j.  He  was  not  attainted 
until  1495.     Rot.  Pari,  vi.  502. 

E 


66  HENRY    VII  [U87 

successful  imposture.  Once  again,  many  years  later, 
the  boy  is  heard  of,  when  he  appeared  as  cup- 
bearer to  a  party  of  Irish  lords.  The  king,  with  one  of 
his  occasional  flashes  of  ironic  humour,  sent  a  message 
that  "  their  new  king,  Lambarte  Simnel,  brought 
them  wine  to  drink  and  drank  to  them  all."  All 
shrank  from  the  cup  except  the  loyal  lord  of  Howth.^ 
A  report  of  the  king's  defeat  had  been  carried  to 
London,  and  so  great  was  the  panic  that  the  Lieu- 
tenant of  the  Tower  offered  the  keys  of  his  prison  to 
the  Earl  of  Surrey,  who,  however,  chivalrously  refused 
to  accept  his  liberty  from  any  but  the  king  himself. 
Henry  appreciated  his  fine  spirit,  released  him  soon 
after  the  rebellion,  and  later  sent  him  north  against 
the  Earl  of  Northumberland.  Surrey  repaid  the 
king's  confidence  by  his  subsequent  devotion  to  his 
cause. '^  There  had  been  disorderly  scenes  in  the 
capital,  the  sanctuary  men  committing  many  out- 
rages.^ This  brought  into  prominence  a  great  abuse, 
and  in  a  letter  dated  July  5,  Henry  appealed  to  the 
Pope  to  limit  the  right  of  sanctuary.  His  letter 
quoted  the  appalling  fate  of  a  man  who  had  scoffed 
at  Papal  edicts  and  immediately  fell  dead,  "  his  face 
and  his  whole  body  became  blacker  than  soot."  He 
also  asked  for  a  bull  of  excommunication  against  the 
Irish  prelates  who  had  supported  the  pretender.^ 

Henry's  uneasy  mind  seems  to  have  been  bent  on 
discovering  the  truth  about  the  late  rebellion.  He 
knew  that  the  ground  was  mined  beneath  him.  A 
few  months  of  apparent  respite  had  been  followed  by 

1  See  below,  p.  297.  ^  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.,  Intro.  Iv. 

3  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VJI.,  i.  94-6  ;  Cat.  of  Venetian  Papers  (ed 
Brown),  No.  519  ;  City  Chron.  (ed.  Kingsford),  p.  194. 

•  Tlie  bull  was  issued  by  the  Pope  on  6th  August  following. 
Rymer,  xii.  332-4. 


1487]      ENGLAND    AT   THE    ACCESSION  67 

a  plot  which  grew  so  swiftly  and  dangerously  that 
it  had  forced  him  to  fight  for  his  crown  on  the  field 
of  battle.  The  death  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  from 
whom  he  hoped  to  have  discovered  the  details  of  the 
conspiracy,  left  him  in  the  dark.  After  three  days 
at  Lincoln,  he  set  out  on  a  progress  through  York- 
shire, making  searching  inquiries  and  sending  out 
spies  in  an  attempt  "  to  purge  his  land  of  all  sedicious 
seede  and  double-hearted  fruit."  Many  executions 
followed,  those  less  deeply  involved  being  punished 
by  heavy  fines.  After  visiting  York,  he  continued 
his  progress  or  judicial  circuit  northwards  as  far  as 
Newcastle.  He  reached  Newcastle  in  August,  and 
remained  there  for  a  time,  despatching  an  embassy 
into  Scotland.  He  retiu-ned  south  in  the  autumn, 
again  visiting  York  and  receiving  a  French  embassy 
at  Leicester.^  On  4th  November  he  entered  London 
in  triumph,  and  rode  through  the  city  to  St.  Paul's 
to  give  thanks  for  his  victory.  His  wife  and  mother, 
"being  secretly  in  a  house  by  Bishopsgate,"  watched 
the  king  pass  in  triumph  and  then  retired  to 
Greenwich. 

On  9th  November  1487  the  king  met  his  second 
Parliament,  which  had  been  summoned  by  writs 
issued  on  1st  September.  Proceedings  began  with  a 
speech  from  Morton,  now  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
and  Lord  Chancellor,  on  the  text,  Declina  a  malo, 
et  fac  boniim,  inquire  pacem  et  prosequere  earn.  On 
the  following  ^londay  the  king  confirmed  the  election 
of  John  Mordaunt  as  Speaker. 

The  Act  of  Attainder  against  those  implicated  in 
the  rebellion  was  a  long  one.  The  preamble  recited 
the  treachery  of  John,  Earl  of  Lincoln,  dating  its 
*  See  below,  p.  73. 


68  HENRY    VII  [1487 

commencement  from  19th  March  1485-6.  Twenty- 
eight  other  persons,  of  whom  the  most  important 
were  Sir  Henry  Bodrugan,  Sir  Thomas  Broughton, 
Thomas  and  James  Harington,  and  John  Beaumont, 
were  attainted  of  high  treason  and  their  lands  and 
goods  forfeited.'  The  legislation  of  this  Parliament, 
which  included  the  famous  Star  Chamber  Act,  will 
be  considered  below.-  Early  in  the  session  Parlia- 
ment had  granted  the  king  two  fifteenths  and  tenths, 
and  a  subsidy  from  aliens  resident  in  England.^  The 
object  of  the  grant  was  stated  to  be  "  the  hasty  and 
necessarie  defence  of  this  youre  Realme  "  ;  foreign 
difficulties  had  arisen. 

Before  the  end  of  the  year  the  long-delayed  corona- 
tion of  the  queen  took  place.  Henry's  position  was 
now  so  secure  that  the  coronation  would  not  appear 
to  be  a  necessity  forced  upon  him  by  Yorkist  dis- 
content. As  an  act  of  grace  there  was  no  reason 
for  further  delay,  and  the  date  was  fixed  for  25th 
November.  Henry's  young  and  lovely  queen  was 
the  central  figure  in  a  succession  of  brilliant  scenes. 
On  Friday  the  queen  came  from  Greenwich  by  water, 
followed  by  the  mayor  and  liverymen  in  gaily  deco- 
rated barges,  the  one  attracting  most  notice  being 
the  "  Bacheler's  barge  "  with  its  great  red  dragon 
"  spowting  flamys  of  fyer  into  Temmys."  Elizabeth 
landed  at  the  Tower,  where  she  was  welcomed  by  the 
king  in  a  way  that  was  "  right  joyous  and  comfortable 

»  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  397-400.  Tlie  Duke  of  Sufiolk  was  specially 
exempted  from  the  operation  of  the  Act  against  his  son.  The  first 
Act  of  this  Parliament  confirmed  the  letters  patent  granting  the 
queen -dowager's  forfeited  lands  to  the  queen,  the  second  Act  gave 
the  queen  right  of  action  in  her  own  name. 

■  See  Chapter  Yll. 

*  See  below,  p.  274. 


1487]       ENGLAND    AT    THE    ACCESSION  69 

to  behold."  There  is  a  contemporary  word  picture 
of  the  young  queen  being  borne  through  the  streets 
of  the  city  in  a  htter  covered  with  cloth  of  gold, 
reclining  on  "  pillowes  of  Downe  covered  with  like 
Clothe  of  golde,"  royally  apparelled  in  robes  of  white 
and  gold,  furred  with  ermine,  "  fastened  with  a  great 
lace  curiousl}'  wrought  of  golde  and  silke  and  riche 
knoppes  of  gold  at  the  end  tasselled  .  .  .  her  faire 
yelow  hair  hanging  down  pleyne  behynd  her  bak 
with  a  caul  of  pipes  over  it,"  and  a  circlet  of 
gold,  richly  garnished  with  precious  stones,  on 
her  head.  Singing  children,  arrayed  like  angels  and 
virgins,  greeted  her  as  she  passed  on  her  way  to  be 
crowned  in  Westminster  Abbey.  A  banquet  in  West- 
minster Hall  followed  the  ceremony,  and  the  gorgeous 
attire  of  the  nobles  is  enthusiastically  described  by 
the  herald.  Two  of  the  queen's  ladies,  we  are  told, 
"  went  under  the  table,  wher  they  satt  on  ether  side 
the  queene's  fete  al  the  diner  time."  The  king  and 
his  mother  "  sat  priveley  "  on  a  stage  built  outside 
one  of  the  windows  of  the  Hall  to  watch  the  pro- 
ceedings. At  the  end  the  queen  departed  "  with 
Godd's  blessing  and  to  the  rejoysing  of  many  a  true 
Englishe  mannes  hert."  The  "  great  besynesse  "  of 
Parliament  put  a  stop  to  further  celebrations.^ 

1  Select  Papers  (ed.  John  Ives),  pp.  120-156;  CityChron.,  p.  194; 
Hall,  p.  438. 


CHAPTER    III 

FOREIGN   AFFAIRS:    1485-1492 

Henry  was  now  to  be  faced  with  difficulties  from 
outside,  hitherto  fortunately  absent.  England  for 
a  long  time  had  played  no  important  part  in  foreign 
affairs,  prestige  had  gone  with  the  French  conquests, 
and  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  had  absorbed  all  the 
fighting  strength  of  the  country.  The  nice  balance 
of  affairs  in  Europe,  however,  and  the  activity  of 
national  rivalries  gave  Henry  an  opportunity  of 
proving  the  recovered  strength  of  his  country,  and 
regaining  the  influence  that  waits  on  power.  The 
theory  of  the  universal  rule  of  Pope  and  Emperor  over 
the  whole  of  Christendom  was  exploded,  and  escaping 
from  the  bonds  of  Papacy  and  Empire,  the  separate 
states  of  Europe  pursued  their  individual  ambitions. 
Many  of  them  had  just  fused  their  elements  into 
unity,  rulers  and  kings  were  fired  by  dynastic  ambi- 
tions. At  no  time  did  personality  count  for  more 
in  diplomacy.  The  personal  characters  of  the  kings 
who  ruled  the  striving  powers  influenced  the  whole 
course  of  history.  It  was  an  age  when  the  whims 
of  the  ruler  were  of  more  account  in  negotiation 
than  the  wishes  of  a  people,  M^hen  marriage  alliances 
and  dynastic  considerations  overruled  international 
hatreds  and  the  traditions  of  history.  This  or  that 
ambitious  prince  set  himself  to  modify  the  map  of 


1485]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1492  71 

Europe.  Territorial  ambitions  were  extraordinarily 
keen. 

It  was  an  atmosphere  which  suited  Henry  ad- 
mirably, and  in  which  he  proved  himself  no  mean 
match  for  his  dexterous  opponents — Ferdinand,  King 
of  Spain,  and  Maximilian,  King  of  the  Romans. 
Ferdinand  of  Aragon  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the 
ablest  men  of  the  time.  He  had  great  ambitions  and 
took  a  wide  and  general  view  of  the  course  of  European 
politics,  using  his  unmatched  diplomatic  skill  to  play 
upon  international  rivalries  for  his  own  purposes.  He 
was  constitutionally  inclined  to  crooked  methods  and 
was  incurably  suspicious.  In  his  ambitions  he  was 
ably  seconded  by  his  wife,  Isabella  of  Castile,  who 
showed  the  curious  union  of  a  narrow  and  rigid  piety 
with  considerable  statesmanshij). 

Maximilian  was  the  stormy  petrel  of  Europe.  He 
was  a  man  of  restless  ambition,  always  bent  on  sacri- 
ficing substance  for  shadow,  the  prosaic  reality  of 
authority  in  Germany  for  glittering  dreams  of  uni- 
versal rule.  Though  not  personally  base,  he  was 
utterly  unreliable ;  he  was  volatile  and  mercurial, 
incurably  hopeful  and  incessantly  active ;  he  took 
up  giants'  tasks  only  to  throw  them  down  like  a 
light-hearted  child.  ^  To  the  steady,  cautious,  tena- 
cious Henry,  with  whom  fate  frequently  threw  him 
into  contact,  he  makes  the  most  extraordinary  con- 
trast, and  this  perhaps  embittered  the  undercurrent 

^  In  the  words  of  the  late  Bishop  of  Oxford's  brilliant  sketch, 
he  was  "  the  most  deUghtfully  unprincipled  hero  of  the  age  of  transi- 
tion ;  always  in  every  feast  and  every  fray,  always  wanting  money 
and  selling  himself  for  promises,  and  never  getting  the  money  and 
never  keeping  his  engagements ;  a  good  deal  of  the  rake,  and  a  good 
deal  of  the  knight-errant."  Stubbs,  Lectures  on  Medieval  and  Modern 
History,  p.  387. 


72  HENRY    VII  [1485 

of  mutual  hostility.  Maximilian  was  typical  of  an  age 
which  is  the  blurred  boundary  line  between  modern  and 
medieval  Europe.  "  Just  as  from  him  the  Austrian 
monarchy  begins,  so  with  him  the  Holy  Empire  in  its 
old  meaning  ends."  ^  He  was  the  heir  of  the  Empire, 
and  the  founder  of  the  mighty  house  of  Hapsburg. 

Forces  in  Europe  were  very  evenly  balanced, 
and  several  foreign  princes  showed  considerable 
anxiety  to  secure  Henry's  friendship.  Other  foreign 
powers  were  marking  time,  waiting  to  see  whether 
Henry  was  strong  enough  to  keep  the  crown  he  had 
won.  France  had  from  the  first  shown  her  friendly 
intentions,  and  within  a  few  days  of  Bosworth 
field  a  truce  for  one  year  between  England  and 
France  had  been  signed.  At  the  moment  Brittany 
focussed  the  eyes  of  Europe.  French  ambition 
was  awake.  The  terrible  struggle  with  England  and 
the  foresight  of  Louis  XI.  had  called  a  nation  out 
of  chaos.  The  borders  of  France  had  been  extended 
and  the  great  vassals  subdued.  Brittany  alone  held 
out,  and  upon  Brittany,  Anne  of  France,  the  capable, 
energetic  regent,  had  set  covetous  eyes.  A  pretext 
for  interference  was  the  shelter  given  by  Duke  Francis 
to  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  discredited  leader  of 
the  French  opposition.  A  French  invasion  tvas 
threatened,  and  it  was  clear  that  Brittany  alone 
could  not  hope  to  resist  her  formidable  neighbour. 
The  old  duke,  casting  about  for  an  ally,  baited  his 
hook  with  the  hand  of  his  elder  daughter  and  heiress, 
Anne.  Already  the  bait  had  attracted  the  needy 
and  adventurous  Maximilian.  At  the  moment  he 
was  hopelessly  involved  ;  he  had  only  just  forced 
the  reluctant  Flemish  states  to  recognise  him  as  ruler 

*  Bryce,  Uoly  Roman  Empire. 


1486-71      FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1492  73 

of  Burgundy  in  the  right  of  his  young  son  Philip,  and 
in  the  spring  of  1486  he  had  been  elected  to  the  lofty 
claims  and  empty  honours  of  the  King  of  the  Romans. 
In  March  I486,  he,  however,  concluded  a  treaty  in 
which  he  guaranteed  the  independence  of  the  duchy 
in  exchange  for  the  hand  of  its  heiress,  while  his  son 
Philip  was  to  marry  her  younger  sister.  Two  other 
suitors  for  the  duke's  young  heiress  were  also  in  the  field 
— the  Duke  of  Orleans,  and  Lord  D'Albret,  a  powerful 
Gascon  noble.     They  were  included  in  this  league.^ 

In  1487  a  French  army  invaded  Brittany  and  be- 
sieged Nantes.  The  town  held  out  stoutly,  and  in 
August  the  French  were  compelled  to  raise  the  siege 
and  make  a  treaty  of  peace.  Maximilian  as  usual 
had  done  little  to  help,  owing  to  renewed  difficulties 
in  Flanders,  where  resistance  to  him  was  encouraged 
by  France ;  but  his  alliance,  though  a  thing  of 
little  practical  value  to  Brittany,  had  made  France 
anxious  to  find  a  makeweight,  and  in  September  an 
embassy  was  despatched  into  England,  which  met 
the  king  at  Leicester  on  his  return  after  his  stay  in 
the  north.  The  ambassadors  explained  that  their 
king  was  making  war  against  the  Duke  of  Brittany 
on  account  of  the  help  given  by  him  to  the  rebel 
Duke  of  Orleans.  They  pointed  out  the  danger 
of  neighbouring  princes  being  allowed  to  succour 
each  other's  rebels — an  obvious  truth  of  which  Henry 
had  just  had  ample  evidence — and  asked  Henry  to 
join  France  in  the  war,  or  at  least  to  preserve  a  strict 
neutrality.  As  to  the  question  of  the  annexation  of 
Brittany,  the  ambassadors  tactfully  "  bare  aloof  from 
it  as  from  a  rock." 

^  Of  Anne's  three  s\iitors  one  was  a  widower,  another  was  ah^ady 
married,  and  a  tliird  was  old  enough  to  be  her  father. 


74  HENRY    VII  [1486-7 

Henry's  position  was  rather  delicate ;  he  owed  a  debt 
of  gratitude  to  both  France  and  Brittany,  and  his  per- 
sonal history  had  emancipated  him  from  the  century- 
old  tradition  of  hostility  to  the  former.  One  of  the  first 
acts  of  his  reign  had  been  the  arrangement  of  a  truce 
with  his  "  most  derest  cousyn  Charles  of  France,"  on 
12th  October  1485,  replaced  on  17th  January  1485-6 
by  a  three  years'  treaty,  negotiated  by  Oliver  King, 
which  ensured  freedom  of  intercourse.^  The  natural 
bent  of  the  king's  mind  was  peaceful.  "  A  fame  of  war 
he  liked  well,"  says  Bacon,  "  but  not  an  achievement." 
He  preferred  the  arts  of  diplomacy,  in  which  he  was 
conscious  that  he  excelled.  Further,  his  position  in 
England  made  the  ])reservation  of  peace  more  than 
desirable.  The  nation  craved  for  rest,  the  old  martial 
spirit  of  the  country  was  suffering  an  eclipse  after  two 
generations  of  civil  war.  Time  was  healing  the 
smarting  sore  of  the  loss  of  the  French  conquests,  and 
the  traditional  hatred  of  the  old  enemy  France  had 
been  merged  in  the  bitterness  of  civil  strife.  Thus 
many  things  seemed  to  force  the  king's  hand,  and 
to  point  to  a  favourable  reception  of  the  proposals 
of  the  French  ambassadors.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  was  diflicult  to  ignore  the  tradition  of 
alliance  with  Brittany,  and  the  claims  her  sovereign 
had  on  his  gratitude.  The  treaty  signed  on  22nd 
July  1487,  a  long  and  detailed  document,  which 
provided  for  peace  and  complete  commercial  inter- 
course during  the  lives  of  the  duke  and  King  Henry, 
and  for  one  year  afterwards,  bore  a  much  more 
permanent  air  than  the  French  treaty.-  Moreover, 
it  was  obvious  that  the  alleged  cause  of  the  attack 

»  Rymer,  xii.  277,  278,  281;  Materials,  i.  192,  199,  602;  Brown, 
Venetian  Col.,  i.  No.  506.  «  Rymer,  xii.  303-12. 


1487]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1492  75 

on  Brittany  was  but  a  cloak  for  French  ambition. 
Though  the  old  hostility  to  France  slumbered  it  was 
not  dead,  and  no  English  king,  however  enlightened, 
could  afford  to  ignore  it  and  acquiesce  in  the  disap- 
pearance of  Brittany,  and  a  menacing  addition  to 
the  power  of  France. 

After  a  long  consultation  in  search  of  a  conclusion 
"  that  coulde  satysfye  or  pleas  hys  doubtfull  mynde 
and  gentle  harte,  lothe  to  offende  anye  of  them,  of 
whom  he  had  receaved  eyther  benefite  or  friendship,"  ^ 
Henry  found  a  loophole  of  escape  from  a  difficult 
position  in  the  suggestion  that  he  might  promise  to 
remain  neutral,  and  thus  perhaps  exercise  considerable 
influence  without  offending  either  party.-  His  almoner, 
Christopher  Urswick,  who  knew  something  of  both 
countries,  was  sent  to  France  in  May.  His  offer  was 
accepted  in  France  but  rejected  in  Brittany,  where, 
owing  to  the  duke's  illness,  he  was  received  by  the 
Duke  of  Orleans.  The  latter  "  made  an  answer  in 
somewhat  high  terms,"  refused  the  offer  of  mediation, 
and  appealed  to  the  king,  "  for  his  safety  and  re- 
putation," not  to  allow  Brittany  to  be  swallowed  up 
by  France,  and  "  his  continuell  enemy es  to  be  next  to 
the  gate  of  his  realme."  The  embassy  left  the  duchy 
without  accomplishing  much,  and  the  French  again 
laid  siege  to  Nantes.^  Henry  continued  his  efforts 
to  mediate,  and  sent  a  second  embassy,  consisting  of 
the  Abbot  of  Abingdon,  Sir  Richard  Edgecombe,  and 
Christopher  Urswick,  through  Brittany  into  France. 

Meanwhile  the  king  was  employed  in  preparing  a 

1  HaU,  Ckron.,  p.  437. 

'  Brittany    and   Maximilian    had    their   ainb£issador3    still   with 
Henry  at  Windsor  in  May.     Paston  Letters,  iii.  344. 
3  Hall,  op.  ciL,  p.  438. 


76  HENRY    VII  [1488 

fleet  under  Sir  Charles  Somerset,  in  Avhich  many 
Spanish  vessels  were  included,  and  for  which  supplies 
had  been  voted  by  Parliament,  to  proceed  against 
"  the  king's  enemies  then  congregating  on  the  sea."  ^ 
The  object  presumably  was  to  give  weight  to  his 
self-suggested  })osition  as  mediator,  but  at  this 
moment  his  carefully  guarded  neutrality  was  im- 
perilled by  the  hasty  action  of  some  of  his  subjects. 
The  anti-French  and  warlike  feeling  ran  high  in  the 
council,  and  Lord  Woodville,  the  queen's  uncle  and 
governor  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  suggested  that  he 
should  be  allowed  to  take  a  force  over  to  the  assistance 
of  the  duke.  "  The  kinge,"  we  are  told,  "  woulde 
in  no%vise  geve  the  brydle  to  hys  hote,  hasty  and  wilde 
desire,"  -  but,  in  spite  of  his  express  prohibition, 
Woodville  raised  a  force  of  400  men  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  and  secretly  embarked  at  Southampton  in 
a  Breton  ship.  He  captured  a  French  merchantman 
on  the  way  across  the  Channel,  and  placed  himself  as 
a  "  valyaunt  captaine  and  bolde  champion  "  in  the 
service  of  the  duke.  There  was  naturally  a  great 
outcry  in  France  at  Henry's  a})parent  treachery,  and 
feeling  reached  such  a  pitch  that  Christopher  Urswick 
was  in  personal  danger.^  Lord  Woodville's  indiscre- 
tion therefore  drove  Henry  from  his  neutral  position 
and  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  conciliate  France. 
He  offered  the  most  ample  apology  for  Woodville's 
exploit,  and  on  14th  July  1488  accepted  his  ambas- 

1  Pat.,  4th  May,  3  Hen.  VII.,  Part  II.,  m.  3,  d.  ;  ibid.,  16th  June, 
3  Hen.  VII.,  Part  I.,  m.  6,  d.  ;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  App.  369-70. 

2  Hall,  p.  439. 

'  Bacon's  suggestion  that  the  king  did  not  really  dislike  an 
enterprise  he  publicly  disavowed  is  not  supported  by  the  evidence. 
Woodville's  action  seriously  hampered  the  king's  negotiations. 
Paalon  LeUers,  v.  367  ;   Pol.  Verg.,  p.  578  ;   Hall,  p.  440. 


1488]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1492  77 

sador's  action  in  renewing  the  treaty  with  France 
until  January  1491-2.^  Thus  Henry  was  forced 
against  his  will  to  commit  himself  to  France.^  The 
ambassadors  returned  by  way  of  Brittany,  where  they 
made  another  fruitless  effort  to  bring  about  a  settle- 
ment, hostilities  being  suspended  from  the  1st  to 
the  26th  of  June.  Before  the  end  of  the  month, 
however,  events  took  place  abroad  which  roused 
English  feeling  by  threatening  the  immediate  ab- 
sorption of  the  duchy.  On  28th  July  ^  the  French 
troops  utterly  defeated  the  Bretons  at  the  battle  of 
St.  Aubin.  Woodville  and  most  of  his  Englishmen 
fell,  the  Duke  of  Orleans  was  taken  prisoner,  and  on 
31st  August  Duke  Francis  was  forced  to  sign  a  most 
disadvantageous  treaty,  by  which  he  surrendered 
several  important  towns  as  pledges  and  agreed  not 
to  give  his  daughter  in  marriage  without  the  consent 
of  "  his  sovereign  lord  the  King  of  France."  He 
promised  to  expel  the  foreign  troops  and  not  to 
harbour  the  enemies  of  France. 

Nine  days  later  he  died,  leaving  his  daughter  Anne, 
then  aged  twelve,  as  heiress  of  the  distracted  duchy.* 
The  French  at  once  claimed  the  wardship,  but  their 
claim  was  resisted,  the  Marshal  de  Rieux  acting  as 
the  young  duchess's  guardian.  War  therefore  began 
again  in  Brittany.  It  was  obvious  that  the  end  of 
it  all  would  be  the  conquest  of  Brittany  unless  the 

^  Rymer,  xii.  344. 

*  Bacon  (pp.  73-4)  suggests  that  Henry  made  the  double  mistake 
of  under-estimating  the  strength  of  France  and  over-estimating  that 
of  Brittany,  and  considers  tliat  liis  neutral  position  was  a  failiu-e. 

3  Hall  says  Monday,  27th  July,  but  a  contemporary  letter 
written  the  day  after  the  battle  gives  the  28th  as  the  date.  Morice, 
Hist,  de  Bretagne,  iii.  594  ;    Busch,  p.  44,  n.  1. 

*  His  younger  daughter  died  soon  after  this. 


78  HENRY    VII  [U88 

young  duchess  could  find  help  outside.  It  was  useless 
to  expect  assistance  from  Maximilian.  He  had  been 
a  captive  in  the  hands  of  the  rebel  Flemings  from 
February  until  May,  when  he  was  released  under 
humiliating  conditions  which  outraged  the  feeling 
of  Europe.  To  avenge  his  treatment  he  was  now 
engaged  with  his  father's  assistance  in  a  war  of 
retaliation.  Henry  of  England  had  just  committed 
himself  to  a  French  treaty,  the  Duke  of  Orleans  was 
a  prisoner.  The  duchess's  fortunes  were  at  a  low 
ebb,  when  the  whole  situation  was  changed  by  the 
entrance  of  another  power  into  the  struggle. 

This  power  was  Spain,  which  was  then  first  be- 
ginning to  rise  to  the  position  of  one  of  the  great 
powers  of  Europe.  Under  the  strong  rule  of  Fer- 
dinand the  recently  united  kingdoms  of  Aragon  and 
Castile  had  been  consolidated  and  their  turbulent 
nobility  reduced  to  obedience.  The  monarchy  was 
established  upon  a  sound  financial  basis,  and 
strengthened  by  the  monarchical  tendencies  of  the 
Inquisition,  which  began  its  reign  of  terror  in  1481. 
It  is  a  tribute  to  Henry's  sagacity  that  he  realised 
the  potential  strength  of  the  Spanish  monarchy,  and 
made  immediate  efforts  to  win  its  alliance.  He  was 
both  conscious  of  the  comparative  unimportance  of 
his  country  in  Europe,  and  personally  anxious  to 
secure  his  dynasty  by  an  alliance  with  one  of  the 
royal  houses  of  Europe.  There  was  no  bitter  legacy 
of  mutual  hatred  and  rivalry  between  England  and 
Spain,  and  there  was  the  link  of  friendly  commercial 
intercourse.  To  Spain  therefore  the  king  turned  in 
the  hope  of  finding  an  ally  who  would  neutralise  the 
effect  of  the  French  successes  in  Brittany.  In  March 
1488  an  embassy,  consisting  of  Christopher  Urswick, 


1488]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1492  79 

Savage,  and  Aynsworth,  set  out  for  Spain  with  powers 
to  conclude  a  treaty  of  peace  and  commerce.  The 
reception  of  the  embassy  was  extremely  encouraging, 
and  shortly  after  they  arrived  in  Spain  we  hear  for 
the  first  time  of  the  marriage  project  which  was  to 
absorb  many  years  of  diplomacy. 

The  suggestion  of  a  marriage  between  the  infant 
Prince  of  Wales  and  Ferdinand's  youngest  daughter 
Katherine   ])robabh'^   originated   with   Henry.     It   is 
first  mentioned  in  the  commission  given  to  dc  Puebla, 
the   Spanish   ambassador,  on   30th   April    1488,  but 
Henry's  envoys  must  have  received  verbal  instruc- 
tions to  make  such  a  proposal,  as  de  Puebla  speaks 
of  them  as  having  been  the  first  to  solicit  the  marriage, 
and  Henry  was  obviously   very  keen  on   it.     Thus 
opened  the  long  diplomatic  duel  between  Henry  and 
Ferdinand,   in  which   both   parties   used  the    sordid 
weapons  of  cunning  and  chicanery  and  spent  them- 
selves in  mercenary  hagglings  over  marriage  portion 
and    dowry.     The    preliminary   negotiations   offered 
delusive  hopes  of  a  speedy  settlement  of  the  question. 
The  principle  of  a  matrimonial  alliance  was  accepted, 
and  a  Spanish  envoy  was   sent  to  England  on  30th 
April  1488  to  discuss  details.    "  Te  Deinn  Laudamus !  " 
exclaimed  Henry,  hearing  that  the  envoy  had  power  to 
conclude  a  treaty  and  a  marriage  alliance ;  but  he  soon 
discovered  that  he  would  have  to  pay  a  formidable 
price   for   the   alliance.     The   course   of   these   early 
negotiations  brings  out  the  inferiority  of  Henry's  posi- 
tion.    The  Spanish  ambassadors  allowed  themselves 
a  sinister  hint  as  to  the  instability  of  Henry's  throne. 
"  Bearing  in  mind  what  happens  every  day  to  the 
Kings  of  England,  it  is    surprising  that  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella  should  dare  to  give  their  daughter  at 


80  HENRY    VII  [1488 

all."  ^  De  Puebla's  vivid  account  preserves  the  bar- 
gaining between  the  commissioners  as  to  the  amount 
of  the  dowry.  Henry  tried  in  vain  to  induce  the 
Spanish  merchants  in  London  to  become  security  for 
the  payment,  and  Ferdinand  to  provide  her  with  her 
trousseau  and  jewels.  Henry's  anxiety  for  the  con- 
clusion of  the  treaty  appeared  from  the  practical 
sacrifices  he  was  -sAilling  to  make  for  it,  though  re- 
luctant to  let  his  inferior  position  appear.  He  showed 
special  favour  to  the  ambassadors,  said  the  most 
flattering  things  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  "  every 
time  he  pronounced  their  names  taking  the  measure  of 
his  bonnet,"  and  granted  licenses  to  Spaniards  at  the 
request  of  his  "  beloved  Doctor  de  Puebla."  -  The 
ambassadors,  on  Henry's  suggestion,  made  a  journey 
to  see  the  baby  Prince  of  Wales  and  discovered  in 
him  "  such  excellent  qualities  as  are  quite  incredible." 
Beyond  these  courtesies,  however,  the  king  was  un- 
willing to  go.  The  draft  of  the  treaty  and  alliance 
drawn  up  on  the  8tli  of  July,  which  provided  that  the 
princess  was  to  receive  a  dowry  of  200,000  gold  scudos 
and  be  endowed  with  one-third  of  the  revenues  of 
Wales,  Cornwall,  and  Chester,  contained  no  promise 
of  Henry's  to  make  war  on  France  at  the  bidding  of 
Spain.  The  special  envoy  left  for  Spain  to  obtain 
his  master's  ratification,  which  was  of  course  withheld, 
and  an  embassy  from  England  to  settle  the  details 
of  the  alliance  followed. 

Ferdinand  was  bent  upon  recovering  the  two 
provinces  of  Rousillon  and  Cerdagne  ceded  to  France 
in  1462,  and  Henry  was  to  be  his  cat's-paw  in  this 
attempt.  The  critical  situation  in  Brittany  opened 
up  a  prospect    of    succeeding  in  this  aim,  without 

1  Bergenroth,  Cal.  of  Spanish  Papers,  i.  No.  21.  *  Ibid. 


1488]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1492  81 

diverting  his  forces  from  the  Moorish  war  in  Granada. 
The  Spanish  plenipotentiaries  stipulated  that  Henry 
should  promise  to  join  Spain  in  a  war  against  France, 
and  not  to  make  peace  without  the  inclusion  of 
Spain.  Spain  in  return  promised  to  include  England 
in  any  peace  she  made.  These  terms  were  so  ob- 
viously unfavourable  to  England  that  Henry's  agents 
hesitated  to  agree  to  them,  and  were  not  daunted 
by  hints  that  the  Spanish  alliance  was  much  more 
important  to  the  King  of  England  than  the  latter's 
was  to  Spain.  Their  national  pride  seems  to  have 
been  roused  to  protest  against  embodying  in  writing 
an  arrangement  so  derogatory  to  their  sovereign's 
dignity.  "  It  was  not  permissible,  just,  or  honest," 
they  said  :  "  the  King  of  England  had  received  many 
services  from  the  King  of  France."  They  suggested, 
however,  that  their  master  might  be  willing  to  agree  to 
these  terms,  if  they  were  made  the  subject  of  a  verbal 
agreement  and  not  set  down  in  writing.  "  Such 
things  were  more  justifiable  and  honest  when  done 
than  when  written,"  they  said.^  This  sophistry 
alarmed  the  Spaniards,  and  the  English  agents  had 
to  reassure  them  by  taking  a  solemn  oath  before  the 
crucifix  that  it  was  Henry's  intention  to  conclude  the 
alliance  and  marriage,  and  then  make  war  upon 
France  for  the  recovery  of  Rousillon  and  Cerdagne, 
"  according  to  the  King  of  Spain's  bidding."  Then 
followed  weary  months  of  negotiation,  when  disputes 
about  the  princess's  dowry,  trousseau,  and  travelling 
expenses  were  used  by  each  power  to  veil  attempts 
to  get  the  other  committed  to  its  own  view.  In 
fact  the  interests  of  the  would-be  allies  were  prac- 
tically confhcting.     Ferdinand   wished   to   push   the 

^  Bergenroth,  Cal.  Span.  Papers,  p.  9. 

F 


82  HENRY    VII  [1488 

peaceful  Henry  into  war  for  the  recovery  of  his  lost 
provinces ;  Henry  hojied  to  gain  the  prestige  of  the 
Spanish  alliance  without  venturing  on  a  war  with 
France,  or,  if  he  found  that  impossible,  to  bind  down 
Ferdinand  to  give  Brittany  some  substantial  help. 

In  October,  when  negotiations  in  Spain  were  still 
in  progress  and  there  seemed  little  hope  of  an  alliance, 
Henry  made  overtures  to  the  Duchess  Anne,  the  basis 
of  the  proposal  being  that  the  duchess  should  marry 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham.  It  may  be  that  the  sug- 
gestion alarmed  Ferdinand,  at  all  events  it  was 
obvious  that  the  limits  of  Henry's  concessions  had 
been  reached,  and  the  Spanish  offers  were  slightly 
modified.  To  counterbalance  the  claim  of  the  King 
of  Spain  to  retreat  from  the  war  as  soon  as  his  two 
provinces  were  restored,  the  English  were  offered  a 
similar  right  of  withdrawal  on  the  cession  of  Guienne 
and  Normandy.  But  this  modification  brought  no 
real  equality  in  the  terms  ;  France  might  possibly 
restore  Rousillon  and  Cerdagne  to  Spain,  the  state 
to  which  they  originally  belonged,  but  the  cession  of 
Normandy  and  Guienne  to  her  old  enemy  involved 
a  surrender  of  French  pride  to  which  nothing  short 
of  absolute  conquest  would  drive  her.  These  altered 
instructions  were  sent  to  de  Puebla  on  the  17th 
of  December.  At  the  same  time  he  was  ordered  to 
dissuade  Henry  from  the  Brittany  marriage  scheme, 
and  to  point  out  that  it  would  alienate  two  of  the 
duchess's  most  powerful  supporters,  Orleans  and 
D'Albret.  The  king  seems  to  have  thought  that  the 
Spanish  alliance  w^as  worth  the  price  he  had  to  pay 
for  it,  but  he  did  not  disguise  his  irritation  from 
de  Puebla.  He  spoke  of  his  obligations  to  the  King 
of  France,  and  of  the  many  friends  he  was  losing  by 


1488]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1492  83 

not  acting  in  concert  with  France,  but  expressed  his 
intention  of  sacrificing  them  in  order  to  come  to  an 
understanding  with  Spain.  The  overtures  to  the 
duchess  were  abandoned.  On  the  11th  of  December 
Thomas  Savage  and  Richard  Nanfan  were  despatched 
to  Spain,  with  power  to  conckide  a  marriage  alhance. 
Ambassadors  from  MaximiHan,  offering  to  make  a 
treaty  with  Henry  on  any  terms  provided  he  promised 
to  help  the  duchess  with  a  powerful  army,  had 
been  in  England  some  time.  On  the  same  11th  of 
December  another  embassy  left  England  to  try  and 
bring  about  the  better  understanding  with  Maximilian 
which  Ferdinand  had  advised.  In  the  first  year 
of  his  reign  (2nd  January  1485-6  ^)  the  treaty  of 
Edward  IV.  with  Burgundy  had  been  renewed  for  a 
year,  but  the  depredations  of  Flemish  pirates  con- 
tinued to  be  a  source  of  complaint,-  and  the  shelter 
and  assistance  given  to  Yorkist  conspirators  by  the 
Dowager-Duchess  of  Burgundy  gave  Henry  just 
ground  for  hostility,  which  he  only  abandoned  under 
pressure  from  Ferdinand.^  The  embassy  despatched 
to  Maximilian  in  December  concluded  a  defensive 
alliance  on  14th  February  1488-9.*  The  embassy 
which  left  England  for  Spain  on  11th  of  December 
was  directed  to  go  on  to  Portugal  to  revive  the 
ancient  treaty  made  by  Richard  II.  in  1387,  and 
bestow  the  Order  of  the  Garter  upon  the  king.     Little 

1  Rymer,  xii.  320-1. 

"  See  the  complaints  in  January  1488,  Materials,  ii.  233-4,  when 
reprisals  were  authorised.     See  also  C'ely  Papers  (Camden  Soc). 

*  In  July  1481  he  was  expressing  to  the  Spanish  ambassador, 
de  Puebla,  his  refusal  to  make  any  treaty  with  JMaximilian. 

*  Rymer,  xii.  360.  On  the  same  date  (11th  December),  Henry 
despatched  five  separate  embassies,  including  one  to  Philip,  Duke 
of  Burgundy. 


84  HENRY    VII  [1488 

came  of  this  at  the  moment  beyond  the  confirmation, 
on  18th  August  1489.  of  the  treaty,  but  it  initiated 
the  pohcy  of  playing  off  Portugal  against  Spain, 
which  Henry  in  later  and  stronger  days  pursued  \vith 
some  success. 

On  the  same  11th  of  December  Christopher  Urs- 
wick,  at  the  head  of  another  embassy,  was  despatched 
to  Charles  VIII.  to  ask  him  to  desist  from  the  war  in 
Brittany  and  to  make  another  offer  of  English  media- 
tion. He  was  instructed  to  warn  him  that  if  he 
persisted  in  his  designs,  Henry  was  going  to  send 
troops  to  support  Brittany,  which  had  formerly  been 
a  subject  and  vassal  of  England  and  had  always  been 
friendly  to  England,  "which  message,"  we  are  told. 
King  Charles  "  dissimuled  as  little  to  regarde  as  the 
by  ting  of  a  flee." 

The  ambassadors.  Sir  Richard  Edgecombe  and 
Henry  Ainsworth,  sent  into  Brittany  on  11th  of 
December,  took  advantage  of  the  duchess's  necessities 
to  drive  a  very  hard  bargain.  Henry  had  hoped  at 
fh-st  to  save  the  duchy  by  negotiation :  but,  though 
driven  by  self-interest  to  take  up  arms  in  her  de- 
fence, he  was  not  the  man  to  champion  the  duchess 
without  receiving  the  market  value  of  his  services. 
He  promised  to  send  a  force  of  6000  men  from 
Portsmouth  in  February  to  protect  the  duchy 
until  the  following  feast  of  All  Saints,  but  re- 
quired and  obtained  the  surrender  of  two  towns 
with  their  castles  as  securities  for  the  repayment  of 
the  expenses  he  had  incurred.  Further,  the  duchess 
agreed,  after  the  expiration  of  the  Anglo-French 
truce,  to  help  Henry,  if  called  upon,  to  recover  Nor- 
mandy, Gascony,  or  even  the  crown  of  France.  No 
treaty  was  to  be  made  by  Anne  without  Henry's 


1489]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1492  85 

approval  except  treaties  with  Maximilian  or  Ferdinand, 
and  the  duchess  was  to  swear  not  to  marry  without 
Henry's  consent.^  These  terms  were  agreed  to  on 
10th  February  1489,  and  four  days  later  the  treaty 
with  Maximilian  was  signed.  Thus  the  foundations 
of  a  great  anti-French  coalition  were  laid.  It  was  a 
recognition  of  the  value  of  the  balance  of  power  and 
an  attempt  to  maintain  it  by  a  league  of  European 
powers  against  any  nation  that  threatened  to  disturb 
the  status  quo,  which  anticipated  the  principle  under- 
lying diplomacy  from  the  sixteenth  century  until  the 
present  day. 

The  king  had  spent  the  summer  and  autumn 
hunting  in  comparative  tranquillity  which  was  dis- 
turbed by  the  unexpected  turn  of  events  in  Brittany. 
In  November  a  Great  Council  had  been  summoned 
to  consider  measures  for  securing  the  safety  of  the 
duchy,  and  Henry  began  to  push  on  preparations  for 
war.  In  December  1488  commissions  of  array  were 
issued  for  troops  to  be  sent  to  the  assistance  of 
Brittany,  and  all  through  this  month  and  in  January 
musters  were  being  taken. ^  Men  were  being  im- 
pressed in  London  to  make  bows  and  arrows  for  the 
king's  service,  and  Henry  announced  to  the  Papal 
collector,  Gigli,  in  January  his  intention  of  defending 
the  "  orphan  duchess  "  with  all  his  might.^ 

On  13th  January  Parliament  met.  Henry  found 
that  there  was  a  strong  feeling  in  favour  of  supporting 
Brittany,  and  that  the  deep-seated  hostility  to  France 

^  The  drafting  of  this  treaty  is  a  good  example  of  Henry's  fore- 
sight. His  men  were  to  be  sent  over  and  back  in  ships  provided 
by  the  duchess  and  at  her  expense,  and  the  provisions  as  to  the 
delivery  of  the  pledge  towns  were  very  elaborate.  Rymer,  xii. 
362-9. 

2  Materiah,  ii.  384-7,  395.         ^  Brown,  Venet.  CcU.,  i.  No.  650. 


86  HENRY    VII  [1489 

could  be  profitably  played  upon.  Bacon  manu- 
factures a  speech  for  Morton  which  speaks  of  the 
vanished  greatness  of  England,  of  the  once  dependent 
confederates.  Burgundy  and  Brittany,  already  partly 
lost,  of  the  danger  that  the  island  would  be  "  confined 
in  effect  within  the  salt  waters,"  a  prospect  galling 
enough  to  the  minds  of  those  who  hankered  after  the 
lost  conquests  of  Henry  V.  As  the  peroration  of 
the  speech  expressed  it,  "  You  know  well  how  the 
kingdoms  about  you  grow  more  and  more  in  great- 
ness, and  the  times  are  stirring  and  therefore  not  fit 
to  find  the  king  with  an  empty  purse." 

On  3rd  February  Parliament  granted  the  king  a 
subsidy  of  £75,000  towards  the  £100,000  required  to 
provide  an  army  of  10,000  men  for  a  year,  "  ayenst 
the  auntient  enymies  of  this  Realme  and  for  the 
defence  of  the  same,"  and  authorised  a  similar  levy 
for  the  two  following  years  if  the  war  still  continued. 
This  was  an  enormous  grant,  nearly  three  times  as 
large  as  a  fifteenth  and  a  tenth,  and  forty-one  days 
were  spent  in  deliberations  before  the  Commons  could 
screw  themselves  up  to  the  vote.  The  exceptional 
nature  of  the  grant  was  emphasised.  It  was  not  to 
be  taken  as  a  precedent,  as  it  had  been  made  owing 
to  the  great  necessity  of  the  time  in  order  to  accelerate 
the  payment.  The  money  was  to  be  raised  by  a  levy 
of  one- tenth  on  all  incomes  and  a  tax  of  8d.  on  every 
ten  marks  of  personalty.  After  a  long  discussion  it 
was  agreed  that  the  balance  of  the  £100,000  was  to 
be  contributed  by  the  clergy.^ 

1  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  420-4.  No  sign  of  the  "  much  alacrity  and  for- 
wardness" mentioned  by  Bacon  (p.  82)  appears.  Hall  and  Vergil 
mention  the  grant  without  comment.  Pol.  Verg.,  op.  cit.,  p.  579 ;  Hall, 
Chron.,  p.  442 ;  Wilkins,  Concilia,  iii.  625-6 ;  Materials,  ii.  424-6,  452. 


1489]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS  :    1485-1492  87 

On  27th  February  Parliament  was  prorogued  until 
October  14th.  Henry  continued  his  preparations 
for  the  assistance  of  Brittany,  collecting  a  force 
to  sail  in  the  spring.  Some  of  his  subjects,  not 
willing  to  wait,  went  on  at  once  to  Brittany, 
throwing  themselves  into  Morlaix,  which  was  being 
besieged.^ 

Henry's  lack  of  enthusiasm  for  the  war  was  justified 
by  a  sudden  revelation  of  the  smouldering  disaffection 
which  menaced  the  safety  of  his  throne.  "  The  harsh 
and  bitter  fruit "  of  the  subsidy  had  still  to  be 
gathered,  and  "  on  a  sudden,  the  people  grew  into  a 
great  mutiny."  Disturbances  in  the  city  of  York^ 
were  followed  by  resistance  to  the  le\'y  of  the  subsidy 
in  the  counties  of  York  and  Durham.  The  people 
''  greatly  grudged  and  murmured,"  and  declared  that 
they  would  not  pay  one  penny  of  the  huge  sum  now 
required  of  them.  Their  resistance  was  stiffened  by 
the  adherence  of  discontented  Yorkists.  The  royal 
collectors  complained  to  the  Earl  of  Northumberland,^ 
who  wrote  to  the  king  asking  for  directions.  Henry's 
spirit  always  rose  in  an  emergency,  and  he  never 
showed  less  weakness  than  when  confronted  by  the 
'"  base  multitude."  Northumberland  was  ordered  by 
the  king  to  proceed  at  once  to  raise  the  money  by 
distress  or  otherwise,  "  and  by  compulsion  to  enforce 
suche  to  payment  as  whyned  moost  at  it."  *  Opposi- 
tion to  the  levy^  could  not  be  overcome,  and,  led  by 
one  John  a  Chambre,  "  a  simple  fellow,"  the  people 

*  See  Paston  Letters,  v.  355. 

*  Gent.  Mag.  (N.  S.)  vol.  xxxvi.,  1851,  gives  a  full  account  of  the 
disturbances. 

*  He  was  one  of  Richard's  supporters  who  had  been  made  Warden 
of  the  Scotch  Marches  and  Sheriff  of  Northumberland  in  1488. 

*  HaD,  p.  443. 


88  HENRY    VII  [1489 

broke  into  open  rebellion.  Northumberland's  attitude 
showed  weakness ;  a  fight  took  place  between  the 
malcontents  and  the  earl's  men  near  Thirsk,  and  the 
earl  and  many  of  his  followers  were  killed.  The  re- 
bellion under  the  leadership  of  Sir  John  Egremont,  who 
had  Yorkist  leanings,  spread  and  called  for  the  king's 
presence.  The  terms  of  a  curious  proclamation  have 
been  preserved  bidding  the  men  of  the  north  assemble 
to  "  geynstonde  such  persons  as  is  aboutward  for 
to  dystroy  owre  sufferyn  Lorde  the  Kynge  and  the 
Commouns  of  England,  for  suche  unlawfull  poyntes 
as  Seynt  Thomas  of  Cauntybery  dyed  for."  Henry 
sent  the  Earl  of  Surrey  northwards  in  command  of 
troops.  On  30th  April  he  wrote  from  the  castle 
of  Hertford  ordering  artillery  to  be  sent  forward 
against  his  ''  unnatural  subgietes  in  the  north  partes 
.  .  .  whose  sedicious  purpose  we  with  Code's  mighte 
entende  breefly  to  subdue  in  owre  persone."  ^  On 
10th  IMay  gunners,  smiths,  and  carpenters  were  being 
impressed  and  the  king's  tents  repaired,-  and  on 
22nd  May  he  went  northwards  himself. 

The  rebels  attacked  York  on  20th  May,  but  "  having 
no  leaders  and  little  credit,"  ^  lost  courage  as  Surrey 
advanced.  "  Their  hartes  were  in  their  heeles  and 
their  stomackes  coulde  as  any  stone."  They  dis- 
persed in  all  directions,  but  did  not  escape  Henry's 
summary  vengeance.  John  a  Chambre  was  hanged 
at  York  on  a  high  gibbet  "  lyke  an  archetraytoure," 
and  his  accomplices  were  executed  "  on  lower  gibbets 
round  about  their  master."  Sir  John  Egremont  suc- 
ceeded in  escaping  and  made  his  way  to  Flanders. 
Sir  Richard  Tunstall  was  left  in  the  north  to  see  to 

*  Leland,  Collect.,  iv.  246.  *  Materials,  ii.  447-8. 

*  Report  of  Papal  Envoy,  9th  May,  Brown,  Venet.  Cal.,  No.  553. 


1489]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS  :    1485-1492  89 

the  collection  of  the  subsidy,  and  the  Earl  of  Surrey 
was  given  the  late  earl's  office  of  Warden  of  the 
Scotch  Marches. 

Leaving  everything  quiet  Henry  returned  south- 
wards, spending  Whitsuntide  at  Nottingham  and  then 
returning  to  hunt  in  Windsor  Forest.^  The  king  had 
apparently  triumphed,  but  of  the  large  grant  made  in 
February  only  about  £27,000  was  collected.  Appa- 
rently resistance  was  encountered  all  over  England, 
though  there  was  no  other  open  disturbance. 

Of  the  adventures  of  the  important  embassy  which 
left  London  for  Spain  on  the  11th  December  we  know 
a  good  deal,  thanks  to  the  narrative  of  the  Richmond 
herald.  He  has  given  a  detailed  account  of  their 
stormy  voyage  from  Southampton,  which  took  nearly 
a  month,  in  two  Spanish  ships ;  of  their  journey 
through  Spain  to  Medina,  which  they  reached  on  the 
14th  March  :  and  of  the  details  of  the  Queen  of  Spain's 
rich  dresses  (one  worth  200,000  gold  crowns  on  the 
herald's  estimation),  of  the  mumbled  speech  of  the 
bishop,  "  who  was  old  and  had  lost  all  his  teeth," 
of  the  court  balls  and  joustings  and  bull-fights,  of 
the  appearance  of  "  notre  princesse  d'Angleterre," 
attended  by  fourteen  maidens,  and  of  the  bull-fight 
at  which  the  "  princess  of  Wales  "  assisted  sitting 
on  her  mother's  knee,-  but  of  the  actual  negotiations 
we  know  little.  They  ended  in  the  treaty  of  Medina 
del  Campo,  which  was  ratified  on  28th  March  1488-9 
by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  General  provisions 
securing  mutual  protection  and  free  commercial  inter- 

^  Leland,  Collect.,  iv.  246.  Andre's  account  (pp.  47—9)  contains 
verses  on  the  death  of  the  earl.  He  places  it  before  the  Lambert 
Simnel  conspiracy. 

-  Memorials  (Rolls  Ser.),  pp.  157-84. 


90  HENRY    VII  [1489 

course  were  followed  by  an  agreement,  which  provided 
for  the  marriage  of  Arthur  and  the  Infanta  when  they 
reached  a  suitable  age,  the  dowry  of  the  latter  being 
fixed  at  200,000  crowns  (4s.  2d.),  half  of  which  was 
to  be  paid  on  her  arrival  in  England  and  half  of  it 
two  years  later.  The  terms  of  the  alliance  with  regard 
to  the  French  war  were  laid  down.  No  hostile  steps 
were  to  be  taken  until  after  19th  January  1490,  when 
the  truce  between  France  and  England  expired.  One 
of  the  clauses  provided  that  as  Henry  had  concluded 
a  truce  with  France  until  19th  of  January,  he  should 
not  call  upon  Spain  to  make  war  with  France  during 
this  truce,  but  that  both  parties  should  be  free  to 
make  a  new  truce  with  France,  on  19th  January  1490, 
or  within  a  year  afterwards,  unless  at  that  date 
England  was  at  war  with  France.  At  first  sight  it 
appeared  that  Henry  held  the  key  of  the  situation. 
The  apparent  fairness  of  this  ])ro vision,  however,  was 
more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  clause  making  the 
cession  of  Rousillon  and  Cerdagne  or  of  Normandy 
and  Guienne  the  conditions  for  the  withdrawal  of 
Spain  and  England  from  the  war,  the  former  being 
a  probable,  the  latter  almost  an  impossible  con- 
tingency. It  was  a  case  of  diamond  cut  diamond. 
Henry  appeared  to  the  Spaniards  as  already  at  war 
with  France,  but  as  he  did  not  consider  himself  a 
belligerent,  he  secured  for  himself  the  freedom  of 
choice  in  the  time  for  making  war,  which  Ferdinand 
hoped  to  deprive  him  of.  Thus  the  practical  effect 
of  the  clause  was  slight.*     It  was  open  to  France  to 

•  The  exact  v^alue  of  this  clause  and  of  the  sophistical  interpreta- 
tions of  it  open  to  both  Ferdinand  and  Henry  have  been  discxissed 
at  length  by  Dr.  Busch  and  Dr.  Gairdner.  Busch,  Henry  VII., 
pp.  330,  435-8.     To  put  it  briefly,  Ferdinand  wished  to  be  able  to 


1489]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1492  91 

buy  off  Spain  at  the  price  of  a  comparatively  small 
cession,  leading  England  to  maintain  single-handed 
the  huge  task  of  a  war  of  conquest  or  make  what 
terms  she  could.  In  spite  of  this,  Henry  could  look 
upon  the  treaty  as  a  great  victory  for  his  diplomacy. 
The  title  of  his  dynasty  was  recognised  by  a  treaty 
which  prov'ided  for  a  marriage  between  a  Tudor  prince 
and  a  princess  of  the  Spanish  royal  house,  and 
England's  weak  and  isolated  position  was  improved 
by  the  prestige  of  such  an  alliance  even  on  rather 
unequal  terms.  No  proof,  however,  has  been  found 
that  the  English  envoys,  Thomas  Savage  and  Richard 
Nanfan,  had  authority  to  accept  these  terms,  and  the 
treaty  as  yet  bound  no  one.  It  had  not  been  ratified 
by  Henry,  who  delayed  in  the  hope  that  something 
might  turn  up  to  improve  his  position  and  modify 
the  bargain.  He  demanded  that  the  princess  should 
be  sent  over  to  England,  and  that  half  her  marriage 
portion  should  be  paid  within  four  years,  obviously 
raising  difficulties  to  gain  time.^  Thereupon  the 
signatures  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  were  cut  off 
from  the  copy  of  the  treaty. 

Henry  seems  to  have  considered  that  he  could 
give  considerable  help  to  Brittany,  in  accordance 
with  his  treaty  with  the  duchess,  without  violating 
the  truce  with  France.  In  April  1489,  6000  English- 
men under  Lord  Willoughby  de  Broke  and  Sir  John 
Chesney  landed  in  Brittany,  occupied  Guingamp  and 

postpone  his  entrance  into  the  war  until  1490,  and  to  gain  by  this 
clause  the  power  of  making  Henry  go  to  war  at  his  bidding,  which 
the  King  of  England  had  refused  to  promise  publicly  though  ready 
to  swear  to  privately.     See  Eng.  Hist.  Review,  viii.  353. 

1  According  to  Dr.  Busch,  pubhc  opinion  in  England  did  not 
incline  to  the  war  with  France,  but  Henry  was  pushed  into  it  by 
his  eagerness  for  the  Spanish  alliance. 


92  HENRY    VII  [1489 

Moncoutour,  which  were  evacuated  by  the  French,  and 
besieged  Concarneau.  The  troops  were  well-disci- 
plined and  were  joined  by  many  of  the  Breton  nobles, 
the  duchess  in  Rennes  being  guided  by  the  advice  of 
Sir  Richard  Edgecombe.^  So  far  Henry's  measures 
were  prospering,  l)ut  a  quarrel  between  the  young 
duchess  and  her  guardian,  the  Marshal  de  Rieux, 
introduced  fresh  complications  into  the  situation. 
De  Rieux  wished  her  to  marry  the  powerful  Gascon 
noble,  D'Albret,  and  in  May  sent  an  embassy  to 
Henry  suggesting  that  if  he  helped  to  bring  about 
the  marriage  D'Albret  would  assist  the  English  in 
a  war  to  recover  Guienne.  The  lady,  however, 
refused  to  accept  her  suitor,  who  was  old  enough 
to  be  her  father.  Henry  did  not  interfere  in  the 
way  De  Rieux  hoped,  but  he  alienated  the  duchess 
and  her  party  by  continuing  to  negotiate  through 
De  Rieux  instead  of  with  Anne  directly. 

In  Burgundy,  however,  he  was  giving  her  valuable 
help  by  co-operating  with  her  ally  Maximilian  in 
accordance  with  the  treaty  of  the  14th  February. 
The  rebellious  Flemings,  assisted  by  France,  were 
still  holding  the  combined  forces  of  Maximilian  and 
the  Empire  in  check.  The  French,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Lord  D'Esquerdes,  were  engaged  in  the  siege 
of  Dixmude,  and  their  operations  appeared  to  threaten 
Calais.^  Lord  INIorley  Avas  sent  with  1000  men, 
ostensibly  to  protect  the  fortress.  He  soon  took  the 
offensive,  and  on  the  night  of  1 0th  June  secretly  entered 
Flanders,  with  a  force  of  about  2000  men  from  the 

*  See  letter  of  Henry  VII.  dated  Hertford,  22nd  April.  Paston 
Letters,  iii.  357. 

•  In  the  autumn  before  there  had  been  rumours  of  a  French 
plot  to  take  the  city.     Brown,  Ven.  Cat.,  No.  535. 


1489]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1492  93 

garrisons  of  Calais,  Hammes  and  Guisnes  under  the 
command  of  Lord  Daubeney,  in  addition  to  some 
600  Germans.  They  reheved  Dixmude  on  13th 
June,  after  a  hotly  contested  action,  in  which  Lord 
Morley  fell — the  news  of  his  death  leading  to  a  great 
massacre  of  French  and  Flemings — drove  the  French 
out  of  Ostend,  burning  part  of  the  town,  and  took 
the  guns  and  the  rest  of  the  spoil  to  Niuport.  Ac- 
cording to  Hall  "  the  field  was  profitable  to  the 
Englishmen,  for  they  that  went  forth  in  clothe  came 
home  in  sylke,  and  they  that  went  out  on  foote  came 
home  on  greate  horses."  Lord  Daubeney  retired  to 
Calais,  leaving  a  small  garrison  with  many  sick  and 
wounded  at  Niuport.  There  they  were  attacked  by 
Lord  D'Esquerdes  and  very  hard  pressed.  The 
French  had  actually  entered  the  town  when  a  ship 
arrived  from  Calais  with  eighty  archers,  to  whom  the 
women  of  the  town  "  cryed  with  lamentable  and  loude 
voyces,  '  Helpe,  Englishmen  ! '  and  themselves  helped 
so  valiantly  by  cutting  the  throats  of  the  Frenchmen 
whom  the  Englishmen  struck  down,  that  the  French 
were  driven  out.' '  ^  Lord  d'Esquerdes,  foiled  this  time 
in  his  attempt  on  Calais,  "  which  he  so  sore  longed 
for  that  he  would  commonly  saye  that  he  would  gladly 
lye  vii  yeres  in  hell,  so  that  Caleys  were  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  Frenchmen,"  withdrew.  Operations 
continued  in  Brittany  during  the  months  that  followed 
with  no  very  obvious  advantage  on  either  side.  In 
July,  however,  France  gained  a  great  diplomatic 
triumph  by  separating  Maximilian  from  the  allies. 
Of  all  the  self-seeking  princes  of  the  time  he  seems  to 
have  been  the  most  selfish  and  faithless,  and  treaty 
obligations  never  bound  him  long  against  his  own 

^  Hall,  Chron.,  p.  446. 


94  HENRY    VII  [1489 

interests.^  His  necessities  at  this  time,  however,  were 
very  pressing,  and  the  situation  in  Flanders  was  in- 
tolerable, as  long  as  the  rebels  could  look  to  France 
for  help.  Charles  offered  to  use  his  influence  to 
settle  the  Flemish  difficulty ;  the  Duchess  Anne  was 
to  have  all  her  fortresses  restored,  on  condition  that 
she  turned  the  English  out  of  the  country,  and 
promised  not  to  allow  them  to  get  a  footing  there 
again.  On  this  basis  the  treaty  of  Frankfort  was 
drawn  up  on  22nd  July  1489,  but  the  duchess 
hesitated  to  ratify  it. 

Meanwhile  the  English  troops  which  had  reached 
Brittany  in  April  had  been  carrying  on  the  war, 
capturing  the  town  of  Concarneau  in  September.  The 
Spaniards  were  making  a  simultaneous  attack  on 
Fontarabia,  and  the  coalition  seemed  to  have  some 
chance  of  success,  but  the  inopportune  desertion  of 
Maximilian  and  the  dissensions  in  Brittany  neutralised 
Henry's  efforts.  The  young  duchess,  believing  a 
rumour  that  De  Rieux  had  been  won  over  by  Henry 
and  had  agreed  to  abduct  her  and  force  her  into 
a  marriage  with  the  hateful  D'xAlbret,  mistrusted 
Henry's  attempts  to  reconcile  her  with  her  guardian. 
In  November  she  accepted  the  treaty  of  Frankfort. 
Henry  was  in  a  difficult  position.  One  of  his  allies 
had  deserted  him,  his  other  ally.  Spain,  had  done 
practically  nothing,  and  was  even  then  receiving 
French  embassies  to  discuss  a  settlement  involving  the 
cession  of  the  two  provinces.  De  Rieux  and  D'Albret, 
however,  played  Henry's  game  by  refusing  to  acknow- 
ledge  the   treaty.     They    continued  hostilities,   and 

'  Dr.  Stubbs  writes  of  "  his  absiord  dishonesty,  which  did  more 
harm  to  himself  than  any  one  else."  Lcct.  on  Med.  and  Mod. 
History,  p.  387, 


1489]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1492  95 

Charles  found  that  the  treaty  was  Avorthless  unless  he 
could  persuade  Henry  of  England  to  become  a  party 
to  it.  Henry  therefore  held  the  key  of  the  position. 
The  English  were  in  possession  of  many  important 
fortresses  in  Brittany,  and  without  his  acquiescence  the 
treaty  of  Frankfort  could  not  be  carried  out.  Further, 
though  for  the  last  year  French  and  English  had  been 
fighting  in  Brittany  and  Flanders,  the  Anglo-French 
truce  did  not  expire  until  January  1490,  and  the  feeling 
of  the  time  apparently  decided  that  though  "  their 
subjects'  swords  have  clashed,  it  is  nothing  into  the 
public  peace  of  the  crowns."  The  strength  of  the 
English  position  was  apparent  when,  at  the  end  of 
1489,  Charles  sent  embassies  to  England  to  try  and 
detach  Henry  from  Spain  and  conclude  a  treaty  with 
him.  One  embassy  had  been  received  and  dismissed 
in  the  autumn,  but  the  operations  of  the  English  army 
in  Brittany  drove  Charles  to  make  another  attempt, ' 
and  a  second  embassy  came  to  England  about  Christ- 
mas and  after  prolonged  negotiations  was  equally 
ineffective.  According  to  Bacon — but  of  this  no  con- 
firmation has  been  found — Henry  refused  to  treat 
unless  his  title  to  the  crown  of  France  was  recognised, 
and  the  French  ambassadors  hotly  retorted  that  their 
king's  sword  would  maintain  his  sceptre.  There  was 
evidently  some  strong  feeling  aroused  by  the  course  of 
the  fruitless  negotiations,  and  one  of  the  Frenchmen 
revenged  himself  in  a  bitter  Latin  epigram.  It  may 
be  that  Henry  touched  upon  the  old  claim  that  made 
the  title  of  King  of  France  part  of  his  style. - 

1  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  i.  No.  41. 

*  We  have  the  Spanish  ambassador's  evidence  that  Henry  re- 
ceived the  suggestion  of  a  perpetual  peace  by  demanding  the 
restitution  of  Normandy  and  Guienne.     Berg.,  Spanish  Cal,  No.  41. 


96  HENRY    VII  [1490 

Meanwhile  the  prorogued  ParHament  reassembled 
on  14th  October  1489.  It  was  allowed  to  consider 
the  French  ])roposals,  in  order  that  its  opposition 
might  strengthen  the  king's  hand  in  negotiation 
and,  possibly  in  the  hope  of  a  settlement,  was  again 
prorogued  until  24th  January  1489-90.  Some  re- 
newal of  the  truce  must  have  taken  place,  though 
no  record  of  it  has  been  found,  for  the  French  am- 
bassadors were  still  in  England  after  the  date  when 
it  was  due  to  expire,  and  were  accompanied  on  their 
return  to  France  by  an  English  embassy.  At  Calais 
they  were  met  by  a  Papal  envoy,  Lionel,  Bishop  of 
Concordia,  who  had  been  despatched  by  the  Pope  to 
try  and  effect  a  settlement  between  France  and 
England  in  view  of  the  danger  to  Christendom 
threatened  by  the  advance  of  the  Turks.'  He  had 
had  some  success  in  his  negotiations  at  Paris  and  was 
on  his  way  to  England.  Henry,  however,  would  not 
conmiit  himself  beyond  a  general  statement  that  "  he 
would  be  glad  and  joyous  to  live  in  peace  and  mutual 
amity  with  all  Christendom."  -  As  the  Pope's  agent 
reported,  "  The  Bishop  of  Concordia  laboured  greatly 
for  peace  with  the  English  and  achieved  nothing."  ' 
Henry  continued  his  warlike  preparations.  Ferdinand 
made  an  attack  on  Rousillon,  which  diverted  some 
of  the  French  troops,  and  tried  to  win  over  the 
Duchess  Anne  by  a  proposal— later  disowned — that 
she  should  marry  the  infante  Don  Juan. 

Between  January  and  May  the  improvement  in 
Henry's  diplomatic  position  becomes  clear.  The 
operations  of  his  troops  had  been  successful,  and 
France,  Spain,  and  the  duchess  were  all  bidding  for 

1  See  below,  p.  228. 

^  Brown,  Yen.  Cal.,  i.  No.  593.  ^  Ihid. 


1490]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1492  97 

his  friendship.  The  Spaniards  showed  signs  of  great 
alarm  at  the  mission  of  the  Legate  ;  hostihty  to  Spain, 
not  zeal  for  peace,  seemed  to  them  the  motive.^  In 
February  the  attitude  of  the  duchess  had  changed. 
She  sent  an  embassy  to  assure  Henry  of  her  sub- 
mission and  ask  for  his  continued  help,  and  promised 
not  to  marry  without  his  consent. 

On  the  27th  of  January  1489-90  the  prorogued 
Parliament  met,  and  while  remitting  the  uncollected 
arrears  of  the  former  subsidy  voted  a  new  war  grant 
of  a  tenth  and  a  fifteenth  (about  £32,000). ^  On 
27th  February  Parliament  was  dissolved. 

The  hope  of  a  general  settlement  had  not  yet  been 
abandoned  and  a  congress  was  held  in  the  summer. 
Envoys  of  England,  France,  Brittany,  the  Emperor  and 
Maximilian  met  at  Boulogne  and  Calais.  The  Bishop 
of  Concordia  made  another  attempt  to  reconcile  the 
powers  and  restore  peace  to  Christendom.  As  a  pre- 
liminary a  seven  months'  truce  between  France  and 
Brittany  was  agreed  upon.  The  internal  dissensions 
in  the  duchy  had  been  settled  by  a  reconciliation 
between  Anne  and  De  Rieux,  and  the  prospect  of  a 
settlement  seemed  favourable.  The  difficulty  which 
wrecked  the  congress,  however,  was  the  fact  that 
French  and  English  troops  were  in  occupation  of 
some  of  the  chief  towns  of  Brittany,  and,  owing  to 
mutual  distrust,  the  envoys  demanded  hard  terms  as 
the  price  of  their  surrender.  Thus  Henry's  envoys 
asked  that  the  duchess  should  re})ay  the  expenses 
incurred  by  the  English   in  her   defence  before  they 

^  Berg.,    Spanish  CaL,  No.  41. 

*  A  sum  of  £6000  was  deducted  for  remissions  to  "  poor  towns, 
cities,  and  boroughs  "  wasted  desolate  or  impoverished,  Lincoln, 
New  Shoreham,  and  Great  Yarmouth  being  specially  excepted. 
Rot.  Pari,  vi.  438-9. 

G 


98  HENRY    VII  [1490 

gave  up  the  towns.     The  French  seem  to  have  refused 
to  surrender  theirs  until  the  king's  claim  to  the  duchy 
had  been  considered,  and  finally  in  August  negotia- 
tions were  abandoned.      The   internal   condition   of 
Brittany  was  desperate.    French,  English,  and  Spanish 
troops,   though  acting  independently   and  rarely  in 
concert,^   were    overrunning   the    duchy.      In   June, 
Henry  sent  fresh  troops  under  Lord  Daubeney  and 
fitted  out  a  fleet  under  Lord  \Yilloughby  de  Broke. 
Meanwhile  the  coasts  were  prepared  to  repel  invasion, 
beacons  were  set  in  order,  and  men  were  pressed  for 
the   garrison   of   Calais.^      The   English   garrison    of 
Morlaix,  which  had  been  added  to  the  towns  held 
by  Henry  as  security,  had  to  crush  a  revolt  of  the 
miserable  peasants,   who  refused   to  pay   a   hearth- 
tax  imposed  by  the  duchess.      But,  in  spite  of  the 
smouldering  disaffection  among  the  peasants,  a  better 
understanding  between  Maximilian  and  Henry  made 
the  maintenance  of  the  independence  of  the  duchy 
much    more    hopeful.     Maximilian    had    by    French 
help  succeeded  in  beating  doAvn  the  resistance  of  the 
Flemings  to  his  rule.     Having  gained  all  he  wanted 
by  the  French  alliance,   he  suddenly  declared  that 
the  treaty  of  Frankfort  had  been  violated  by  con- 
tinued   occupation    of    the    Breton    strongholds    by 
French  troops,  and  repudiated  the  treaty.     For  once 
Maximilian's  treachery  was  an  advantage  to  Henry ; 

^  I^Ieanwhile  there  was  little  co-operation  between  the  English 
and  Spanish  troops  in  Brittany.  Ferdinand  had  been  angered  by 
the  Pope's  attempt  to  reconcile  Charles  and  Henry,  and  was  now 
secretly  treating  for  a  separate  alhance  with  France  and  offering 
the  infanta  Joan  as  wife  to  Charles. 

*  Letter  of  Henry  \^I.,  dated  15th  August  1490,  from  Eltham. 
L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  97. 

3  Pat.,  May-July,  5  Hen.  VII.,  m.  21,  d ;  Pat.,  8  July,  5  Hen.  VII., 
m.  22,  d;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  App.  371. 


1490]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS  :    1485-1492  99 

on  11th  September  1490  a  treaty  betAveen  Maximilian 
and  Henry  was  signed,  the  object  of  which  was  the  pro- 
tection of  Brittany  against  France.  On  Christmas  Day 
MaximiHan  was  invested  at  Neustadt  with  the  Order 
of  the  Garter  as  a  special  pledge  of  Henry's  friendship. 
About  the  same  time  there  is  evidence  that  Henry 
was  extending  the  sphere  of  his  diplomatic  activity. 
A  Portuguese  embassy  was  in  England  discussing  a 
marriage  between  the  cousin  of  the  King  of  Portugal 
and  the  elder  sister  of  Henry's  queen.  Nothing 
seems  to  have  come  of  it.^  In  July  of  the  same  year 
a  treaty  -with  the  Duke  of  Milan  was  signed,  though 
the  project  for  his  marriage  with  the  queen's  sister 
Cecily,  perhaps  never  seriously  considered,  seems  to 
have  fallen  through.  Less  than  a  week  after  the 
important  treaty  with  ^Maximilian,  Henry  at  last 
confirmed  the  treaty  of  Medina  de  Campo.  His 
long  delay  had  been  useless.  There  had  been  no 
change  in  the  general  situation,  as  he  had  hoped 
there  might  be,  which  would  enable  him  to  make 
better  terms.  He  was  forced  to  ratify  the  treaty 
in  order  to  keep  the  coalition  alive.  He  still 
hoped,  however,  that  the  treaty  might  be  modified, 
and  additional  clauses  were  sent  to  Spain,  which,  as 
they  were  an  improvement  from  Henry's  point  of 
view,  were  not  accepted.-  The  secret  negotiations 
for  a  marriage  between  the  Duchess  Anne  and  the 
Spanish  prince  had  fallen  through,  and,  outwardly  at 
least,  in  the  autumn  of  1490  Spain,  Maximilian,  and 

1  Brown,  Ven.  Cal.,  No.  603. 

-  One  clause  annulled  the  provision  allowing  the  King  of  Spaun 
to  make  peace  if  Rousillon  and  Cerdagne  were  restored,  and  forbade 
either  ally  to  make  peace  without  the  consent  of  the  other.  The 
other  pro\-ided  that  the  Princess  Katherine  was  to  be  sent  to 
England  as  soon  as  she  was  twelve  years  old. 


100  HENRY    VII  [1490-1 

England  were  allied  against  France  in  defence  of 
Brittany.  At  the  end  of  the  year  Maximilian  felt 
himself  strong  enough  to  defy  France  by  a  proxy 
marriage  with  Anne,  attended  with  a  curious  cere- 
monial described  by  Hall  as  "a  new  invencion  and 
tricke."  '  Anne  was  then  publicly  proclaimed  Queen 
of  the  Romans  and  the  coalition  seemed  to  be  secure. 
The  marriage,  however,  hamjiercd  the  duchess  instead 
of  helping  her.  It  alienated  D'Albret,  who,  in  spite 
of  his  rejection  by  the  duchess,  had  not  lost  hope  of 
becoming  her  husband,  and  drove  him  into  alliance 
with  the  French.  He  surrendered  Nantes  to  France 
in  April  1491.  Further.  Charles,  exasperated  by 
Anne's  defiance,  again  invaded  the  duchy.  The 
coalition  proved  a  broken  reed.  Maximilian  gave  no 
help,  and  indeed  was  in  no  position  to  do  anything. 
The  year  before,  as  if  he  had  not  already  enough  on 
his  hands,  he  had  become  a  candidate  for  the  throne 
of  Hungary,  and  was  now  absorbed  in  a  w^ar  against 
his  successful  competitor  the  King  of  Bohemia. 

Spain  was  gathering  together  all  her  forces  for  a 
great  attack  on  Granada,  and  actually  in  the  winter 
of  1490-1  withdrew  all  her  troops  from  Brittany  with 
the  exception  of  a  small  garrison  in  Redon.  This 
was  a  contravention  of  the  treaty  of  Medina,  and 
practically  left  Henry  alone  of  the  coalition  to  defend 
the  duchy.  In  April  he  sent  more  troops  into  Brit- 
tany.^ In  May  he  received  an  urgent  appeal  from 
Anne  for  further  help,  as  the  Spaniards  were  secretly 
dealing  with  France  and  again  offering  a  Spanish 
marriage  to  the  young  king.  The  French  were  in 
possession  of  Nantes,  Charles  VIII.  had  come  of  age 

1  Hall,  p.  449;    Pol.  Verg.,  p.  581. 

»  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  App.  pp.  371-2. 


1491]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1492  101 

and  was  reconciled  to  the  Orleanist  party,  and  the 
French  attack  threatened  to  be  unusually  vigorous. 
In  the  face  of  this  danger  Henry  made  great  exertions.' 
All  through  the  spring  he  seems  to  have  feared  a 
French  invasion;  men  had  been  raised  and  a  fleet 
fitted  out.  Money  was  necessary,  and  the  king,  un- 
willing to  "  aggravate  the  common  people  .  .  .  whome 
his  mynde  was  ever  to  kepe  in  favoure,"  summoned  a 
Great  Council,  and  obtained  its  assent  to  the  raising 
of  benevolences,  after  the  manner  of  Edward  IV. 
Thus  the  "  benevolent  mynde  of  the  riche  sorte  " 
was  searched  out  by  the  appointment  of  commis- 
sioners, it  being  published  abroad  that  "  by  their 
open  gifts  he  [the  king]  Avould  measure  and  searche 
their  benevolent  hartes  and  loving  myndes  towarde 
hym,  so  that  he  that  gave  mooste  shoulde  be  judged 
to  be  mooste  lovinge  frende,  and  he  that  gave  litel  to 
be  estemed  accordynge  to  his  gifte."  Troops  were 
sent  into  Brittany,  but  the  situation  had  become 
desperate ;  it  was  obvious  that  half  measures  would 
not  save  the  duchy.  In  October  Henry  called 
Parliament  together  and  made  a  spirited  appeal  to 
them,  announcing  his  intention  of  taking  the  field  in 
person,  to  make  war  upon  France,  not  as  before  in 
defence  of  Brittany  but  to  recover  the  ancient  rights 
of  England.  "  The  French  king  troubles  the  Chris- 
tian world,  that  which  he  hath  is  not  his  own,  yet  he 
seeketh  more.  Let  us  by  the  favour  of  Almighty 
God,  try  our  right  for  the  crown  of  France  itself, 
remembering  that  there  hath  been  a  French  king 
prisoner  in  England  and  a  King  of  England  crowned 
in  France."     These  are  the  words  put  by  Bacon  into 

1  Pat.,  5th  May,  6  Hen.  VII.,  m.  9,  d;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii. 
App.  pp.  371-2. 


102  HENRY    VII  ti49i 

the  king's  mouth.  ^  This  appeal  to  national  ambition 
and  the  war  spirit  met  with  a  good  response.  Two 
fifteenths  and  two  tenths  were  granted  for  the  war, 
in  which  it  was  the  king's  purpose  "  to  hazard  his 
most  noble  person."  Meanwhile  he  attempted  to 
bind  Ferdinand  in  some  more  effective  way.  Spanish 
co-operation  had  hitherto  been  of  little  value,  and  in 
November,  finding  his  first  effort  had  not  succeeded, 
Henry  attempted  a  second  modification  of  the  terms 
of  the  treaty  of  ]\Iedina  de  Campo  by  drawing  up 
supplementary  treaties.  The  first  bound  Spain  and 
England  to  declare  war  upon  France  before  15th 
April  1492,  and  to  begin  hostilities  before  15th  of  June 
at  the  latest ;  the  second  stipulated  that  the  Princess 
Katherine  should  be  sent  to  England  to  marry  Prince 
Arthur  as  soon  as  he  was  fourteen,  and  that  her 
dowry  of  200,000  crowns  should  then  be  paid. 

Less  than  a  fortnight  later  the  cause  which  Henry 
had  striven  for  by  diplomacy,  by  treaties,  and  by 
force  of  arms — the  independence  of  Brittany — had 
gone  for  ever.  The  young  duchess,  weary  of  looking 
to  her  allies  for  the  help  that  never  came,  saw  her 
duchy  being  devastated  alike  by  the  arms  of  friend 
and  foe.  In  the  summer  the  French  troops  advanced, 
took  Redon  from  the  Spaniards,  Concarneau  from 
the  English,  and  besieged  Anne  in  Rennes.  Her 
position  was  desperate.  She  had  pawned  all  her 
jewels,  she  was  living  in  the  midst  of  a  disorderly 
and  mutinous  garrison  of  P2nglish,  German,  and 
Spanish  troops.  Henry  had  provided  the  means  of 
flight  and  advised  her  to  escape  to  the  English  ships 

>  Bacon,  op.  cit.,  116,  and  116,  n.  1  ;  Rot.  Pari,  vi.  440;  Stubbs, 
Lee.  on  Med.  and  Mod.  Hist.,  p.  422.  Polydor  Vergil  alludes  to 
some  speecli  of  the  kind. 


1491-2]      FOREIGN    AFFAIRS  :    1485-1492  103 

and  make  her  way  to  join  Maximilian,  but  with 
characteristic  courage  and  determination  she  refused 
to  abandon  her  capital.  She  also  rejected  Charles's 
offer  to  fmd  her  a  suitable  husband.  Charles  then 
bought  over  the  mutinous  garrison,  entered  Rennes 
in  triumph,  and  asked  for  Anne's  hand.  In  her 
extremity,  finding  that  the  vaunted  league  of  three 
kings  was  worthless  as  a  defence,  she  came  to  terms. 
She  repudiated  her  betrothal  and  proxy  marriage  to 
Maximilian ;  Charles  on  his  side  renounced  Maxi- 
milian's daughter,  whom  he  had  formally  married 
years  before,  when  she  was  only  three  years  old. 
Papal  dispensations  were  obtained,  and  on  the  6th  of 
December  Charles  VIII.  married  Anne  of  Brittany 
and  her  duchy  became  part  of  the  kingdom  of  France. 

The  coalition  had  failed.  To  two  of  the  allies, 
involved  in  wars  of  more  vital  consequence,  the 
defence  of  Brittany  was  a  secondary  consideration. 
Brittany,  however,  had  been  Henry's  objective,  and 
with  the  loss  of  its  independence  all  his  trouble  had 
been  thrown  away.  It  appeared  at  once  that  Spain 
and  Maximilian  were  not  prepared  to  undertake  a 
war  of  revenge  upon  France.  In  the  heat  of  his 
first  disappointment  Maximilian  talked  loudly  of  an 
attack  upon  Brittany,  and  promised  to  send  10,000 
men  to  serve  with  the  English  for  two  years,  but 
in  the  spring  of  1492  the  war  in  Hungary  absorbed 
all  his  resources.  Spain  had  just  won  a  great  triumph 
which  made  her  comparatively  indifferent  to  the  check 
received  in  Brittany.  In  January  1491-2  the  long 
efforts  of  the  Spaniards  were  crowned  by  the  fall  of 
Granada,  an  event  which  was  received  in  London 
with  great  rejoicings. 

Henry   alone   of   the   allies   seems   to   have   been 


104  HENRY    VII  L1491-2 

serious  in  his  intention  of  making  war  on  France,  and 
he  was  probably  swayed  to  some  extent  by  the  war 
spirit  aroused  in  England  by  the  French  success.' 
It  is  clear  that  he  felt  very  bitter  against  France 
at  this  time.  A  letter  written  to  the  Pope  on  8th 
December  1491  -  breathes  hostility  against  France. 
Henry  writes  of  her  insatiable  coveting  of  the  dominions 
of  others,  her  fostering  of  rebellion  in  Ireland,  her 
violent  thirst  for  annexation,  and  her  insolent  law- 
lessness. The  king  spoke  of  war  as  a  hateful  necessity 
forced  upon  him  to  whom  the  slaughter  of  men  and 
the  shedding  of  Christian  blood  was  abhorrent.^  A 
few  weeks  later  he  wrote  to  Milan  of  the  French,  "  who 
are  so  on  the  watch  to  increase  their  power  by  any 
villany  .  .  .  that  they  may  annihilate  all  neighbour- 
ing sovereigns  to  their  own  advantage."  and  an- 
nounced his  intention  to  make  war  and  "  to  carry 
our  banners  against  them  in  person."  * 

Henry's  actions  reflected  the  strength  of  his  hostile 
feelings.  He  made  great  preparations,  assembled  a 
large   force   at   Portsmouth,^   three   breweries   being 

1  Bacon  says  that  Henry  did  but  "  traffic  with  the  war  to  make 
his  return  in  money,"  and  that  he  had  no  intention  of  making  war 
in  earnest  (Hen.  VII.,  p.  119).  This  is  probably  an  overstatement 
of  the  truth.  Henry  may  have  been  a  reluctant  warrior,  but  he 
made  his  preparations  in  good  earnest. 

^  It  is  quite  possible  that  he  had  already  heard  of  Anne's  mar- 
riage, which  took  place  on  the  6th.  The  Cely  Papers  prove  that 
communication  between  England  and  Brittany  was  rapid. 

'  This  warlike  letter  is  signed  "  your  devoted  and  most  obedient 
son,  Henry,  by  the  grace  of  God  King  of  England  and  France  and 
Lord  of  Ireland,"  an  unusually  elaborate  signature  froiu  Henry 
to  the  Pope.  There  is  an  interesting  despatch  (dated  March  1492) 
from  Henry's  ambassador,  John  de  Giglis,  describing  the  Pope's 
reception  of  this  letter.  Report  on  MSS.  of  Lord  Middleton  (Hist. 
MSS.  Com.  l',)ll),  pp.  2(50-263,  and  App.  612. 

*  Brown,  Yen.  Cal.,  No.  617. 

^  Rymer,  xii.  463,  477-480  ;  Paston  Letters,  iii.  375 ;  Pluin/pton 
Correspondence  (Camden  Soc),  102-103. 


1492]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1  i92  105 

built  near  the  town,  and  appointed  John,  Earl  of 
Oxford,  and  the  Duke  of  Bedford  as  leaders.  He 
spared  no  efforts  to  rouse  his  nominal  allies,  of 
whom  "  one  had  power  and  not  ^^'ill,  and  the  other 
had  will  and  not  power."  ^  An  embassy  was  sent  to 
Maximilian,  which  found  him  as  usual  utterly  un- 
prepared, urging  him  to  co-operate.  He  summoned 
the  Duke  of  Milan  to  take  part  in  the  war  and  made 
an  appeal  to  the  Pope.  He  further  tried  to  make 
capital  out  of  the  disaffection  in  Brittany,  where  many 
of  the  nobles  were  discontented  at  the  union  with 
France,  by  entering  into  negotiations  for  the  surrender 
of  Brest,  but  the  plot  was  found  out  and  came  to 
nothing.  Parliament  made  regulations  for  the  conduct 
of  the  war  and  the  payment  of  troops,  and  additional 
ships  were  provided.  A  force  sailed  from  Portsmouth 
in  June,  but  beyond  ravaging  the  coasts  of  Brittany 
and  Normandy  and  carrying  off  booty  little  was  done. 
In  the  autumn  an  English  fleet  of  twelve  ships  under 
Sir  Edward  Poynings  was  sent  to  co-operate  with 
Maximilian's  troops  in  the  siege  of  Sluys,  which  had 
been  holding  out  ever  since  the  Flemish  rebellion  had 
been  put  down.  It  had  been  the  headquarters  of 
pirates  who  did  great  damage  to  the  merchandise  of 
nations  trading  with  Antwerp,  and  the  English  cloth 
trade  had  suffered  considerably.  On  13th  October 
the  town  surrendered,  the  two  forts  being  handed 
over  to  Sir  Edward  Poynings.  The  fate  of  Sluys  was 
of  considerable  commercial  and  political  importance, 
as  it  heralded  the  end  of  the  Flemish  civil  war.  It 
proved  to  Europe  that  England,  under  the  leadership 
of  her  able  king,  was  emerging  from  the  period  of 
failure   and   weakness. 

'   Bacon,  op.  cit.,  p.  120. 


106  HENRY    VII  [1492 

Though  the  fleet  was  thus  profitably  employed, 
Henry's  army  was  delaying  in  England  until  late 
in  the  year.  The  spring  and  summer  went  by  with- 
out the  invasion  of  France  taking  place.  In  May 
there  was  a  great  tournament  at  the  palace  of 
Sheen,  "  to  warm  the  blood  of  the  nobility  and 
gallants  against  the  war."  In  August  a  French 
attack  seems  to  have  been  feared,  and  the  southern 
counties  were  armed  to  repel  an  expected  invasion.' 
The  explanation  of  the  delay  was  that  Henry  was 
still  trying  to  induce  his  allies  to  give  him  some  real 
assistance  in  an  invasion  that  would  be  undertaken 
in  their  joint  interests.  He  had  lost  the  towns  he 
had  held  as  securities  for  the  repayment  of  his  ex- 
penses,- and  was  disinclined  to  incur  further  costs 
without  some  assurance  of  support  from  his  allies. 
Nothing  came  of  his  attempts.  Even  the  Spaniards, 
though  set  free  by  the  fall  of  Granada,  sent  no  help. 
Henry  at  last  saw  that  it  was  a  choice  between 
making  war  upon  France  single-handed  or  acquies- 
cence in  the  loss  of  all  that  he  had  been  fighting  for, 
and  he  reluctantly  decided  on  war.  The  long-con- 
tinued threats  of  war  were  at  last  turned  into  earnest. 
Henry  resolved  upon  an  invasion  of  France,  for  since 
he  had  accumulated  men  and  money  for  the  purpose, 
to  abandon  the  project  would  be  unpopular  at  home 
and  would  involve  a  loss  of  prestige  abroad.  The 
young  Prince  of  Wales  was  appointed  regent,  and 
given  power  over  Church  and  State  in  his  father's 
absence.^  On  2nd  October  the  king  sailed  from 
Dover  for  France  in  The  Swan,  landing  at  Calais  at 
11  o'clock.     His  army  of  about  25,000  foot  and  1600 

'   RjTner,  482  ;    L.  and  P.  lien.  VII.,  ii.  App.  p.  373. 
2  The  date  of  the  fall  of  Morlaix  is  not  certain. 
»  Rymer,  xii.   487-S. 


1492]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS  :    1485-1492  107 

horse  had  been  transported  by  a  fleet  of  Venetian 
merchant  ships  on  the  same  day.^  At  Calais  the  army 
heard,  what  the  king  already  knew,  that  no  help  could 
be  expected  from  Maximilian,  who  excused  himself 
on  the  plea  of  poverty,  "  for,"  says  Hall,  "  he  could 
neither  have  money  nor  men  of  the  drunken  Fle- 
minges,  nor  yet  of  the  crakyng  Brabanders,  so  ungrat 
people  were  they  to  their  lorde." 

On  the  18th  October,  however,  Henry  advanced 
to  besiege  Boulogne.  The  town  was  strongly 
fortified,  and  the  reduction  of  it  at  that  late  season 
of  the  year  would  have  been  a  big  undertaking. 
Maximilian  "  laye  style  lyke  a  dormouse,  nothynge 
doynge,"  and  Henry  therefore  was  inclined  to  wel- 
come proposals  for  peace  laid  before  him  by  Lord 
d'Esquerdes  on  behalf  of  Charles  VIII.'^  The  King 
of  France  was  just  then  inflamed  with  the  ambitious 
plan  of  invading  Italy  in  support  of  his  claim  to  the 
kingdom  of  Naples.  An  English  invasion  and  the 
presence  of  an  English  army,  which  might  lead  to  a 
revolt  of  the  discontented  nobles  of  Brittany,  would 
be  fatal  to  this  scheme.  Charles  VIII.  therefore, 
follo"sving  his  father's  lead,  offered  a  substantial  sum 
in  return  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  English  army. 
Henry  was  similarly  inclined  for  peace.  He  must 
have  seen  clearly  enough  that  he  had  been  the  cat's- 
paw  of  his  wily  allies,  that  he  was  fighting  Ferdinand's 
battles,  Maximilian's  battles,  not  England's  battles 
by  any  means,  and  not  even  Brittany's  battles,  since 

1  Dr.  Gairdner,  following  Polydor  Vergil  and  Hall,  gives  6th 
October  as  the  date.  The  correct  date,  2nd  October,  is  found  in 
the  Privy  Purse  Expenses  [Excerpta  Historica,  91-2).  See  Busch, 
op.  cit.,  p.  333. 

2  Overtures  had  been  made  even  before  he  sailed  from  England 
and  were  discussed  while  he  was  at  Calais,  "  where  the  calm  winds 
of  peace  began  to  blow." 


108  HENRY    VII  [1492 

the  independence  of  the  duchy  was  lost  beyond 
recovery.  The  spirited  appeal  by  which  he  had 
obtained  a  Parliamentary  grant  and  aroused  some- 
thing like  a  war  fever  in  England,  was,  as  the  king 
well  knew,  a  century  out  of  date.  The  conquests 
that  England  had  failed  to  keep  were  not  readily  to 
be  won  back.  France  was  consolidated  and  growing 
stronger  every  year,  and  England  had  been  weakened 
by  fifty  years  of  civil  war.  A  war  of  ambition  was  a 
formidable  undertaking  for  the  first  Tudor  king,  and 
the  sinister  rumour  of  a  new  Yorkist  plot  had  just 
reached  him.  Henry's  sound,  dull  common-sense  kept 
his  mind  free  from  quixotic  schemes.  It  was  the  path 
of  safety,  not  the  road  to  glory,  that  allured  him. 
His  imagination  was  never  fired  with  the  ambition  of 
carving  out  the  career  of  an  Alexander  or  a  Henry  V. 
It  is  clear,  however,  that  he  had  an  adequate  if 
not  an  aggressive  feeling  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
national  honour,  and  the  terms  suggested  for  the 
treaty  gave  him  a  chance  of  withdrawing  without 
dishonour  from  a  war  into  which  he  had  reluctantly 
entered.'  Moreover,  he  could  congratulate  himself  on 
being  the  only  one  of  the  great  powers  that  had  not 
deserted  his  allies  and  been  false  to  his  engagements, 
a  signal  distinction  at  a  time  when  diplomatic  double- 
dealing  was  more  than  usually  fashionable.  Charles's 
overtures  gave  him  a  chance  of  repaying  his  treacherous 
allies  in  their  own  coin,  and  he  decided  to  make  peace. 
The  king  attempted  to  throw  the  glamour  of 
popularity  over  his  sound  but  inglorious  decision  to 
abandon  the  war.  His  captains  drew  up  a  petition 
speaking  in  feeling  terms  of  the  "  great  and  outrageous 

*  Money,  as  usual,  was  a  powerful  motive  with  Henry.     Further 
expense  involved  heavy  taxation  and  grave  poUtical  danger. 


1492]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS  :    1485-1492  109 

cold  of  the  -winter  season,"  of  the  difficulty  of  pro- 
visioning the  camp  when  cut  off  from  England  by 
"  the  great  rage  and  tempest  of  winds  and  weather  "  ; 
the  allies,  they  said,  were  treacherous,  the  town  was 
strong.  Sir  John  Savage  had  already  fallen,  and  so  on. 
The  treaty  of  Etaples  therefore  was  signed  on  3rd 
November  1492.     By  it  Charles  VIII.  agreed  to  pay 
725,000  gold  crowns  in  yearly  instalments  of  50,000 
francs.^     Each  party  promised  not  to  help  the  other's 
enemies  ;    Henry  undertook  not  to  assist  Maximilian 
and  Charles  promised  not  to  harbour  Henry's  rebels. 
On  4th  November  the  camp  before  Boulogne  heard 
the  peace  proclaimed.     The  news  of  peace,  we  are 
told,    was    "  bitter,    soure    and    dolourous "    to    the 
English,  "  they  were  in  great  fumes,  angry  and  evil 
content,  that  the  occasion  of  so  glorious  a  victory  to 
them    manifestly    was  .  .  .  refused,    putte    by    and 
shamefully  slacked."     The  king  was  thought  to  have 
betrayed  his  people,  to  have  imposed  heavy  taxation 
for  the  sake  of   a  sham  war.     But   Henry's   policy, 
though  it  failed  to  win  popular  approval,  was  obviously 
the  right  one.     Peace  with  honour,  or  at  all  events 
without  dishonour,  was  desirable  for  England,  as  well 
as  an  absolute  necessity  to  the  founder  of  the  Tudor 
dynasty,  which  was  shortly  to  be  faced,  as  the  king 
perhaps   already   knew,  by  another   dangerous   con- 
spiracy.    The  king,  much  wiser  than  his  people,  saw 
that  he  could  never  hope  to  reconquer  Normandy 
and  Guienne,   and  he  had  already    found   that   the 

1  This  money  was  paid  every  year.  Popular  opinion  in  England 
regarded  it  as  a  tribute  paid  to  buy  off  the  old  claim  to  the  crown 
of  France.  Henry's  diplomacy  had  in  this  respect  appeased  the 
national  vanity.  As  the  "  ecu  d'or  "  was  worth  about  ten  or  eleven 
shiUings  the  indemnity  amounted  to  about  £370,000,  or  over  three 
and  a  half  millions  of  modem  money. 


no  HENRY    VII  [1492 

expenses  of  foreign  war  led  inevitably  to  tumults 
in  England. 

With  the  withdrawal  of  his  army  from  Boulogne 
Henry's  first  and  last  appearance  as  leader  of  an 
English  army,  bent  upon  foreign  conquest,  was  at  an 
end.  He  never  again  took  up  arms  outside  Britain, 
and  his  policy  became  studiously  insular. 

A  month  later  (January  1492-3),  Charles  and  Ferdi- 
nand also  came  to  terms.  The  two  border  counties 
of  Rousillon  and  Cerdagne  w^ere  restored  to  Spain, 
which  had  thus  gained  its  point  without  any  very 
great  exertion.  At  the  same  time,  as  if  to  show  the 
value  of  the  treaty  of  alliance  with  Spain,  upon  which 
Henry  set  so  much  store,  Ferdinand  promised  to 
help  Charles  against  all  his  enemies,  and  in  particular 
against  his  "  old  enemies  "  the  English,  as  well  as 
against  Maximilian,  and  the  chances  of  the  Anglo- 
Spanish  match  apparently  vanished  in  a  clause  by 
which  the  kings  of  France  and  of  Spain  bound  them- 
selves not  to  entertain  any  proposal  of  a  marriage 
alliance  with  Henry  or  Maximilian.  Of  all  the  powers 
engaged  Ferdinand  had  come  out  of  the  affair  the  most 
successfully.  He  had  scored  all  along  the  line.  While 
the  bulk  of  his  forces  had  been  engaged  in  a  successful 
struggle  with  the  Moors,  a  few  men  and  the  exercise 
of  his  unmatched  skill  as  a  diplomatist  had  won  for 
him  the  coveted  provinces  and  an  alliance  with  the 
King  of  France.  Even  the  ally  he  had  overreached 
and  made  use  of  had  not  been  lost,  and  Henry  still 
counted  Ferdinand  his  friend  and  ally. 

Maximilian,  as  might  have  been  expected,  felt 
Henry's  desertion  keenly.^     All  his  splendid  schemes 

*  In  justice  to  Jlaximilian  it  should  be  noticed  that  his  inactivity 
had  not  been  due  to  want  of  will  to  co-operate  with  Henry,    At  the 


1492]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1485-1492  111 

had  come  to  nothing,  both  his  allies  had  deserted 
him,  his  daughter  had  lost  her  royal  husband,  and 
he  had  lost  the  heiress  of  Brittany.  Though  France 
had  been  the  instrument  of  his  humiliation  he  soon 
came  to  terms  with  Charles,  but  appears  to  have 
pursued  Henry  henceforth  with  bitter  hatred.  Frank- 
fort might  be  set  off  against  Etaples,  but  Maximilian 
was  slow  to  forgive  his  ready  pupil  in  the  art  of 
repudiating  binding  obligations. 

The  net  results  of  Henry's  first  achievements  as  a 
diplomatist  had  been  moderate  rather  than  brilliant. 
He  had  made  good  his  footing  among  the  great 
powers  of  Europe,  but  the  treacherous  friendship  of 
Ferdinand  was  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the 
embittered  hostilit}'  of  Maximilian.  He  had  gained 
a  large  sum  of  money,  but  the  old  enemy  France  had 
advanced  her  borders  and  faced  England  across  the 
Channel.  He  had  great  hopes  of  the  Spanish  alliance, 
but  so  far  he  had  served  Spain  and  obtained  no 
reward. 

As  far  as  the  relations  of  England  and  France  are 
concerned,  the  treaty  of  Etaples,  which  remained  in 
force  all  through  the  reign,  marks  the  point  at 
which  medievalism  gave  way  to  modernism,  \yith 
it  ended  the  last  attempt  of  an  English  king  to  push 
his  claims  to  the  throne  of  France.  Henceforth  the 
medieval  ambition  drops  into  the  background,  and 
anti-French  feeling  ceases  to  be  the  pivot  of  English 
policy.  Wars  of  conquest  are  replaced  by  years  of 
peace  and  friendly  commercial  rivalry. 

moment  ^vhen  Henry  was  negotiating  the  peace,  Maximilian  was 
straining  every  nerve  to  raise  men,  and  a  month  later  4000  Germans 
wovdd  have  joined  the  camp  before  Boulogne. 


CHAPTER    IV 

'  PERKIN   WARBECK  :  1491-1497 

Bad  news  had  hastened  the  king's   departure  from 
France.     He    had    been    warned    that    another    con- 
spiracy was  on  foot.     Like  the  attempt  of  Lambert 
Simnel  it  was  the  work  of  disaffected  Yorkists,  and. 
like  that,  too,  it  was  an  attempt  to  ov^erthrow  Henry 
by  producing  a  pretender  who  claimed  the  throne, 
as  heir  of  the  Yorkist  line.     The  second  conspiracy,, 
however,  was  much  more  formidable  than  the  first. 
It  was  the  most  dangerous  plot  that  Henry  ever  had , 
to  face  :  it  handicapped  him  at  critical  moments,  and 
its  shadow  lies  over  many  years  of  his  reign. 

The  Perkin  Warbeck  plot  first  saw  the  light  in 
Ireland  in  1491.  There  the  Yorkist  malcontents  had 
been  emboldened  by  impunity.  Bad  harvests  had 
brought  famine  ;  blood  feuds  and  anarchy  flourished. 
Henry  had  not  dared  to  punish  Kildare,  the  all- 
powerful  Lord  Deputy,  for  his  share  in  Lambert 
Simnel's  rising,  and  the  oath  of  allegiance  he  had 
reluctantly  taken  did  not  prevent  him  from  disobey- 
ing the  king's  summons  to  England  and  meditating 
further  treachery.  The  hopes  of  the  Yorkist  party 
gathered  round  the  young  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  his 
name  was  the  focus  of  conspiracy  at  home  and  abroad. 
In  December  1489,  the  Abbot  of  Abingdon  had  been 
concerned  in  a  plot  to  set  him  free,  and  executed  for 
his  share  in  it.    Rumours  of  his  escape  were  constantly 

112 


■Sti 


^y 


Emery  Walker.  Photo 
PERKIN  WARBECK 
From  the  National  Portrait  GaUery  photograph  of  a  16tli  century  drawing  by  a 
French  or  Flemish  artist,  preserved  in  the  library  of  the  town  of  Arras 


1491]        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497         113 

started.  A  letter  written  in  September  1491  by  John 
Taylor,  a  Yorkist  exile,  ^  to  one  John  Hayes,  who, 
though  formerly  a  servant  to  the  late  Duke  of  Clarence, 
had  been  given  an  official  position  by  Henry,-  contains 
the  earliest  mention  of  the  plot.  According  to  this 
letter,  the  King  of  France  had  been  brought  into  the. 
conspiracy,  and  had  decided  to  support  the  claims 
of  the  Earl  of  Warwick  "  in  thre  parties  out  of  the 
Royalme."  ^  This  letter  makes  it  obvious  that  a 
plot  for  advancing  the  claims  of  the  imprisoned 
earl  was  already  on  foot.  It  only  remained  for  the 
Yorkist  conspirators,  assured  of  French  support,  to 
find  a  suitable  person  to  pose  as  the  imprisoned 
earl.  The  plot  thus  gaining  ground  in  England 
and  France  had  reached  maturity  in  Ireland. 
The  Anglo-Irish  lords  were  pondering  the  details 
of  the  conspiracy  when,  with  dramatic  opportune- 
ness, their  attention  was  directed  to  a  handsome, 
graceful  lad  of  about  seventeen,*  who,  gorgeously 
dressed  in  silk  apparel,  made  a  brave  figure  in  the 
streets  of  Cork.  In  him  they  found  the  figure-head 
of  whom  they  were  in  search,  and  they  approached 
him  with  the  suggestion  that  he  should  declare 
himself  to  be  the  Earl  of  Warwick.  This  boy  was 
Perkin  Warbeck.  According  to  his  public  confession, 
the  details  of  which  are  corroborated  by  contemporary 

^  Taylor  had  been  a  surveyor  of  customs  under  Edward  IV. 
and  Richard  III.  He  had  been  pardoned  by  Henry  in  June  1489, 
but  was  still  a  malcontent  and  was  living  in  France.  He  is 
very  prominent  in  all  the  early  stages  of  the  Perkin  Warbeck 
afiair. 

«  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  504  ;  Materials,  i.  20,  189,  198,  201,  211,  237,  296, 
309,  400,  445,  459  ;  ii.  89,  93-4,  454. 

»  See  Rot.  Pari,  vi.  454. 

*  He  was  aged  twenty-three  in  1497.     Brown,  Ven.  Col.,  No.  760. 

H 


114  HENRY    VII  [1491 

records  and  letters,^  he  was  the  son  of  John  Warbeck 
or  Osbeck,-  a  boatman  and  collector  of  customs  in 
Tournay,  and  he  was  born  in  1474  or  1475.  His 
childhood  had  been  eventful.  He  had  lived  with  his 
successive  masters  in  Antwerp  and  Middlel)urg,  and 
in  about  1489  he  had  travelled  to  Portugal  in  the 
service  of  the  wife  of  Sir  Edward  Brampton,  a  well- 
known  Yorkist.  He  afterwards  entered  the  service 
of  Pregent  IMeno,  a  merchant  of  Brittany,  who  brought 
him  to  Ireland  in  the  autumn  of  1491.  Here,  as  we 
have  seen,  he  was  approached  by  the  Yorkist  con- 
spirators. Warbeck,  however,  refused  to  personate 
the  Earl  of  Warwick,  swearing  before  the  mayor 
"  that  he  was  not  the  son  of  Clarence  or  one  of  his 
race,"  and  denied  upon  oath  a  subsequent  suggestion 
that  he  was  a  bastard  son  of  Richard  III.  This  would 
have  been  a  curious  claim  to  the  throne  in  any  case, 
and  Richard's  son  was  kno%\Ti  to  be  in  Henry's  hands. 
The  conspirators,  however,  seem  to  have  determined 
to  cast  the  youth  for  the  chief  role  in  their  production, 
and  offered  him  another  part,  that  of  Richard,  Duke 
of  York,  the  younger  of  the  princes  murdered  in  the 
Tower.  By  promising  him  powerful  supporters,  they 
ultimately  prevailed  upon  him.  "  And  so,"  says 
Perkin  in  his  confession,  "  agaynst  my  will  made 
me  to  lerne  Inglisshe  and  taught  me  what  I  shuld 
doo  and  say."  ^ 

So  far  the  conspiracy  had  not  been  joined  by  men 

^  Registers  of  Tournay,  printed  by  Dr.  Gairdner,  Perkin  Warbeck, 
pp.   334-335;  Archa:ologia,  xxvii.,  1838,  pp.  156-158,  199-200. 

*  Warbeck  is  probably  the  correct  form  of  the  name.  Gairdner, 
op.  cit.f  p.  334.  Henry  \T^I.  in  his  letter  to  Waterford  (Hallivrell, 
Letters,  i.  177)  writes  Osbeck,  and  that  form  appears  also  in  the 
confession.     See  Appendix  II.  below. 

»  Hall,  pp.  488-9  ;    City  Chron.,  pp.  219-221. 


1491-2]      PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497       115 

of  the  first  importance.  Its  leaders  were  Hubert 
Burgh  and  John  Walter,  citizens  of  Cork,  and  John 
Taylor,  who  had  returned  from  his  French  exile,  but 
the  conspirators  counted  upon  the  support  of  the 
Earl  of  Kildare.  In  a  letter  written  in  1493,'  Kildare 
stoutly  denied  that  he  had  helped  "  the  French  lad," 
but  this  denial  came  at  a  time  when  Henry  had 
proved  himself  strong  enough  to  punish  treachery, 
and  cannot  be  accepted  in  face  of  the  evidence  of 
his  complicity. 

Warbeck  certainly  remained  in  Ireland  in  the 
\vinter  of  1491-2,  learning  English  and  being  coached 
up  in  the  part  he  was  to  play.  He  obtained  the 
active  support  of  the  Earl  of  Desmond,  who  wrote 
letters  in  his  own  name  and  in  that  of  "  King  Eduartis 
son "  to  James  IV.  of  Scotland,-  who  was  then 
meditating  hostilities  and  hoped  to  help  himself  by 
hindering  Henry.  A  little  later  another  of  Henry's 
royal  neighbours  joined  the  conspiracy.  Charles  VIII. 
sent  envoys  inviting  Warbeck  to  France.  He  ac- 
cepted the  invitation,  "  thinking  to  be  exalted  into 
heaven  when  he  was  called  to  the  acquaintaunce  and 
familiarite  of  kynges  and  princes,"  ^  and  was  present 
at  the  court  of  Charles  VIII.  when  Henry  invaded 
France.  He  was  treated  as  a  royal  prince  and  was 
joined  by  various  Yorkist  rebels.  His  stay  in  France 
was  brief ;  the  intrigues  of  Taylor  and  Hayes  came  to 
light,  and  while  the  peace  negotiations  were  going  on 
Henry  learnt  of  the  new  conspiracy.  One  of  the 
clauses  of  the  treaty  of  Etaples  bound  Charles  VIII. 
not  to  harbour  or  support  rebels  or  traitors  against 
Henry  VII.     Perkin,  obliged  to  leave  France,  made  his 

1  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  55.  "  Ibid.,  pp.  326-7. 

3  HaU,  p.  463. 


116  HENRY    VII  [1492 

way  to  the  safe  haven  for  all  Yorkist  traitors,  the 
court  of  Margaret  of  Burgundy.  She  received  him 
gladly,  and  openly  acknowledged  him  as  her  nephew, 
"  the  whyte  Rose,  prynce  of  England."  In  this  policy 
she  was  supported  by  the  counsel  of  the  young  Arch- 
duke Philip  and  by  Maximilian,  who  was  burning  to 
be  revenged  upon  Henry  for  the  treaty  of  Etaples. 
Thus,  within  a  few  months  of  his  first  appearance, 
Perkin  Warbeck  had  been  acknowledged  by  crowned 
heads  as  well  as  by  Yorkist  leaders  as  a  prince  of 
the  House  of  York.  It  is  a  curious  point  as  to  how 
far  Warbeck's  powerful  supporters  believed  in  the 
genuineness  of  their  claimant.  Their  readiness  to 
profess  belief  in  his  identity  with  the  Yorkist  prince 
sprang  from  their  interest  in  maintaining  the  im- 
posture. To  set  up  a  pretender  who  might  shake  the 
king's  throne  was  their  object,  and  the  impostor  could 
easily  be  replaced  by  the  true  prince  if  the  conspiracy 
succeeded.  Some  of  Warbeck's  adherents  may  have 
been  genuinely  convinced.  The  fate  of  the  two  young 
sons  of  Edward  lY.  was  still  a  mystery,  and  no' 
conclusive  proof  of  their  death  had  been  made  public.^ 
Stories  of  their  escape  from  the  Tower  were  con- 
stantly being  circulated,  and  Perkin's  age  and  appear- 
ance corresponded  closely  enough  to  deceive  people 
remote  from  the  court.  Thus  the  Yorkist  conspirators 
could  count  upon  a  certain  number  of  genuinelv 
convinced  supporters,  and  those  who  pulled  the 
strings  of  the  puppet  behind  the  scenes  naturally 
made  loud  professions  of  their  belief  in  his  claims. 
One  by  one  all  the  crowned  heads  in  Europe  (with 

'  One  writer  has  suggested  that  Henry  VII.  murdered  the  princes, 
but  his  arguments  have  been  shattered  by  Dr.  Gairdner.  Eng.  Hist. 
Rev.,  vi.  pp.  250-83,  444r-64,  806-15. 


1493]        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497         117 

the  possible  exception  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella)  ^ 
acknowledged  the  youth  as  the  Duke  of  York,  and, 
what  is  more,  they  treated  him  with  the  honour  due 
to  his  high  rank.  Some,  like  Maximilian,  who,  long 
years  after  Perkin's  confession  had  been  made  public, 
spoke  of  him  as  the  Duke  of  York,  may  have  been 
genuinely  conxdnced, others,  like  the  Duchess  Margaret, 
vrere  convinced  as  a  matter  of  policy.-  Anyway  it 
was  galling  enough  to  Henry. 

From  the  duchess,  "  that  fierce  Juno  "  who  pursued 
Henry  with  a  "  woman's  undoing  hatred,"  Perkin 
probably  received  the  training  in  the  part  of  a  Yorkist 
prince,^  the  story  of  which  has  been  told  often  and 
with  many  exaggerations.  In  February  1492-3  Perkin 
was  writing  letters  to  Yorkists  in  England  under  the 
title  of  "  The  Merchant  of  the  Ruby,"  and  in  these 
negotiations  it  is  probable  that  some  of  the  Hanse 
merchants  acted  as  the  pretender's  agents.^ 

HenrA^  was  alive  to  the  danger.  He  sent  an  em- 
bassy in  July  1493  to  remonstrate  with  Maximilian 
and  Philip  on  the  conduct  of  the  dowager-duchess,^ 
and  on  the  20th  of  the  month  he  wrote  to  Sir  Gilbert 
Talbot,  ordering  him  to  summon  men  to  resist  any 
attempt  made  by  Margaret  on  behalf  of  Perkin.^ 
From  this  important  letter  it  appears  that  Henry  was 
already  in  possession  of  the  main  facts  as  to  Perkin's 

1  See  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  Pref.  Ixxxiii. 

*  Perkin  later  asserted  that  the  duchess  knew  from  the  beginning 
that  he  was  not  the  Duke  of  York.     Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  p.  185. 

'  She  had  last  seen  her  brother's  court  in  1480. 

*  Archceologia,  xxvii. 

5  Rymer,  xii.  544;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  374  ;  Ellis,  2nd  Ser., 
i.  167  aeq. 

*  Printed  by  Gairdner,  Perkin  Warbeck,  pp.  275-6 ;  Ellis,  Letters, 
Ist  Ser.,  i.  19-21  ;   Halliwell,  Letters  of  Kings  of  Eng.,  i.  172-3. 


118  HENRY    VII  [1493 

birth,  early  career,  and  stay  in  Ireland.  The  king 
mentions  "  the  great  malice  that  the  Lady  Margaret 
of  Burgaigne  beareth  continually  against  us  .  .  .  by 
the  untrue  contriving  eftsoons  of  another  feigned  lad 
called  Perkin  Warbeck,  born  at  Tournay  in  Picardy," 
and  alludes  to  the  duchess's  method  of  getting 
together  supporters  for  the  pretender  by  promising 
"  to  certain  alien  captains  of  estrange  nations,  to 
have  duchies,  counties,  and  baronies  within  the 
realm  of  England."  ^  The  king's  ambassadors,  how- 
ever, could  not  obtain  any  satisfactory  reply  to 
these  remonstrances.  They  were  assured  of  the 
friendship  of  Philip  and  Maximilian,  but  were  told 
that  the  duchess  was  an  independent  sovereign 
within  her  dowry  lands  and  that  her  conduct  there 
could  not  be  interfered  with.-  Henry  retaliated  by 
an  original  move  which  illustrates  his  despotic  bent. 
The  interests  of  the  English  wool  merchants  were 
sacrificed  to  the  necessities  of  the  Tudor  dynasty. 
On  18th  September  proclamations  were  issued  for- 
bidding all  commercial  intercourse  with  Flanders. 
All  Flemings  were  ordered  to  leave  the  country  and 
their  goods  were  seized  ;  the  Merchant  Adventurers 
were  recalled  from  Antwerp  and  their  mart  was 
transferred  to  Calais.^  A  similar  prohibition  of  trade 
with  England  was  issued  in  Flanders,  but  not  until 
some  months  later  (May  1494).  The  political  con- 
sequences unfortunately  did  not  justify  Henry's  action. 
Merchants  on  both  sides  suffered  loss  by  the  dislo- 

^  He  possibly  obtained  the  information  £is  to  the  pretender's 
birth  and  family  from  liis  late  master,  Pregent  Meno,  who  in  April 
1495  obtained  a  grant  of  £300,  being  later  naturadised  and  made 
governor  of  an  Irish  castle.     L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  375. 

«  Pol.  Verg.,  592. 

s  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  374  ;    Hall,  467.     CUy  Chron.,  p.  200. 


1493]        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497  119 

cation  of  trade  without  the  pressure  upon  Philip  and 
MaxiiniHan   being   sufficient   to   make   them  dismiss 
Warbeck  from  the  Netherlands  ;    and  in  London  the 
privileges  of  the  Hanse  merchants,  who  as  foreigners 
were  still  engaged  in  the  trade  with  Burgundy  for- 
bidden to  Englishmen,  led  to  a  dangerous  riot  and 
attack     on     the     Steelyard    (15th    October    1493).^ 
There  appeared  to  be  no  immediate  danger  to  Henry 
from  Perkin  Warbeck's  pretensions.     Both  Margaret 
and  ^Maximilian  lacked  the  means  required  to  provide 
an  invading  fleet  for  their  protege,  and  he  remained 
under     Margaret's     protection,    corresponding     with 
various  English  traitors  until  the  late  autumn  of  1493. 
The  relations  between  England  and  Spain  at  the 
moment  were  friendly  but  not  cordial.     In  the  treaties 
of  Etaples  and  Barcelona  both  Henry  and  Ferdinand 
had  ignored  their  mutual  obligations  under  the  treaty 
of  Medina  de  Campo.     The  much  discussed  marriage 
alliance   seemed   to  have  been  abandoned.     Henry, 
however,  had  not  given  up  hope.     In  March   1493, 
months  after  the  treaty  between  France  and  Spain, 
he  proposed  a  modification  of  the  treaty  of  ^Medina, 
but    the    Spaniards    having    gained    Rousillon    and 
Cerdagne  had  no  further  use  for  the  English  alliance. 
Ferdinand  was  too  cautious  to  make  an  unnecessary 
enemy,  but  the  Barcelona  treaty  bound  him  not  to 
make   a  marriage   alliance   with  England.     For  the 
moment  the  friendship  of  France  was  worth  more 
than  that  of  England.       No  answer  was  made  to      V 
Henry's  overtures  until  nearly  two  years  had  gone 
by,  when,  as  will  be  seen,  the  aggressive  attitude  of 
France  made  Henry's  alliance  again  valuable  to  Spain. 

1  City  Chron.,  p.   198 ;  Hall,  468  ;  Fabyan,  Chronicle  (ed.  Ellis), 
684. 


120  HENRY    VII  [1493-4 

Henry,  however,  had  nothing  to  complain  of  in  the 
Spanish  attitude  to  Perkin  Warbeck.  Perkin  %vrote 
from  Flanders  to  Queen  Isabella  of  Castile  asking  for 
her  help  and  mentioning  the  support  he  had  received 
from  France,  Burgundy,  Denmark,  Scotland,  the 
King  of  the  Romans,  and  the  Archduke  Philip.^ 
The  Spanish  monarchs  were  much  too  cautious  to 
take  up  Perkin's  cause,  and  they  obviously  doubted 
the  truth  of  his  pretensions.  His  letter,  which  gave 
a  very  unconvincing  account  of  his  early  life,  being 
conspicuous  for  its  omission  of  all  important  names 
and  dates,-  and  for  a  mistake  as  to  the  age  of  the 
prince  he  claimed  to  be,  was  endorsed  "  from  Richard, 
who  calls  himself  the  King  of  England." 

In  November  1493  Warbeck  left  the  Netherlands 
and  moved  into  Austria,  in  the  hope  of  gaining  more 
substantial  help  than  the  promises  the  duchess  had 
been  lavish  with.  He  was  well  received  by  Maxi- 
milian, was  treated  as  a  royal  prince,  and  took  his 
place  among  the  royalties  who  attended  the  funeral 
of  the  Emperor  Frederick  III.^  The  fact  that  Perkin 
was  being  received  in  Vienna  as  a  royal  prince  was 
an  insult  rather  than  a  pressing  danger,  and  Henry 
was  powerless  to  interfere.  In  the  summer  of  1494 
Perkin  Warbeck  accompanied  his  latest  patron  to 
Antwerp,  and  jMaximilian  went  a  step  further.  He 
acknowledged  the  pretender  as  rightful  King  of 
England,  gave  him  a  bodyguard  of  twenty  archers 
bearing  the  badge  of  the  white  rose,  and  allowed  him 

^  ArchoBologia,  xxvii.  199. 

*  The  letter,  dated  25th  August  1493,  is  printed  by  Madden, 
Archceologia,  xxvii.  156.  It  mentions  the  "  proud  and  wicked 
tyranny  of  the  usurper  Henry  of  Richmond." 

•  Archceologia,  xx\-ii.  2-7. 


U93]        PERKIX    WARBECK:    1491-1497  121 

to  decorate  his  house  in  Antwerp  with  the  arms  of 
England,  inscribed  vrith  the  legend,  "  The  arms  of 
Richard  Prince  of  Wales  and  Duke  of  York,"  ^  an 
assumption  which  roused  some  travelling  English- 
men to  fury.  This  insult  provoked  Henry  into 
remonstrance,  and  the  Garter  King  at  Arms  was 
despatched  to  assure  Maximilian  and  the  duchess 
that  Henry  had  proofs  of  their  protege's  low  origin, 
and  to  proclaim  publicly  the  facts  of  Parkin's 
birth. 

MeanwhOe  the  relations  between  England  and 
France  were  cordial.  Payments  of  the  pension  due 
were  punctually  made,  and  Charles  VIII.  adopted  a 
very  correct  attitude  in  the  matter  of  the  pretender. 
He  kept  Henry  informed  of  his  actions  in  Flanders, 
offered  to  help  him  with  men  and  ships  if  the  threat- 
ened attack  was  made,  and  forbade  any  help  being 
given  to  the  pretender  in  France.-  In  view  of 
Charles's  preoccupation  with  his  ambitious  schemes 
in  Italy  nothing  could  have  been  more  generous  than 
his  offers.  Henry  replied  in  the  same  cordial  spirit. 
The  Richmond  herald  was  sent  into  Italy  with  care- 
fully drawn  instructions  (10th  Aug.  1493)  thanking 
Charles  for  his  offer  but  making  light  of  the  pretensions 
of  the  'gar'. on,''  who,  he  said,  was  known  to  every 
one  of  rank  and  position  in  England  to  be  but  the 
son  of  a  boatman  of  Tournay.  He  spoke  guardedly 
of  Charles's  claim  to  Naples  and  suggested  media- 
tion. Henry  also  notified  his  brother  that  England 
was  "  more  peaceful  and  obedient  than  it  had  been 
within   the    memory    of    man,"  and    announced    his 

^  Busch,  op.  cit..  p.  93,  quoting  Molinet,  Chroniquea,  v.  15  eeq. 
«  ArckcEologia.  xx^-ii.   201-^  ;    L.  and  P.  Henry  VII.,  ii.   292-7  ; 
Rymer,  Fcedera,  xii.  526,  550,  569,  575,  623,  630. 


122  HENRY    VII  [1494 

intention   of   bringing   the   "  wild   Irish    into    peace 
and  order."  ^ 

In  England  Henry  was  taking  what  steps  he  could 
to  neutralise  Warbeck's  powerfully  patronised  preten- 
sions. In  November,  Prince  Henry,  the  king's  second 
son,  who  was  born  on  22nd  June  1491,  was  created 
Duke  of  York,  the  pretender's  title.  The  occasion 
was  celebrated  by  banquets  and  tournaments,  the 
prize,  a  ruby  ring,  being  presented  by  the  Princess 
Margaret.  The  young  prince,  then  aged  four,  rode 
upon  a  courser  to  Westminster.  After  these  brilliant 
scenes,  which  gave  "greate  gladnesse  to  all  the  common 
people,"  ^  the  king  struck  sudden  blows  at  the  Yorkist 
conspirators  in  England.  There  is  evidence  that  he 
had  for  a  long  time  been  aware  of  the  treasonable 
negotiations  between  his  subjects  and  the  pretender.^ 
His  spies  had  been  busy  in  Flanders.  Towards  the 
end  of  the  year  he  obtained  the  detailed  information 
he  wanted  by  buying  over  Sir  Robert  Clifford,  one 
of  Perkin's  most  enthusiastic  supporters,  who  had 
declared  that  he  knew  the  young  man  by  his  face 
to  be  the  son  of  King  Edward.  His  enthusiasm, 
however,  was  not  proof  against  the  offer  of  a  pardon 
and  the  promise  of  reward — he  obtained  a  grant  of 
£500  in  the  following  January  ^ — and  at  the  end  of 
the  year  he  came  back  to  England  to  betray  his 
former  associates.^     Already   in   November   William 

»  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  295;  Arch.,  xxvii.  200-204.  Richmond 
also  had  secret  instructions  to  point  out  that  the  help  given  by 
Maximilian  to  the  pretender  was  an  endeavour  to  set  an  enemy 
of  France  on  the  tlirone  of  England. 

2  Full  details  are  given  in  Cott.  MS.,  Jul.  B.,  xii.  f.  91,  printed 
in  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  388-402. 

3  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  504  ;   Stat.,  ii.  632. 

*  Excerpta  Hiatorica  (ed.  Bentley),  100. 

»  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  374  ;  Bacon,  Henry  VII.,  152  ;  Pol. 
Verg.,  593. 


1494]        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497  123 

Worsely,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  Robert  Ratcliff,  John 
Rateliff,  Lord  FitzWalter,  Sir  Simon  Montford,  Sir 
Thomas  Thwaites,  WilHam  Daubeney,  the  Provincial 
of  the  Dominicans,  and  the  Prior  of  Langley  and 
several  others  had  been  arrested  before  the  mayor 
in  the  Guildhall  and  condemned.  The  churchmen 
escaped  the  death  penalty  ;  the  others  were  either 
beheaded  on  Tower  Hill  or  hanged  at  Tyburn,  with 
the  exception  of  Lord  FitzWalter.  He  was  imprisoned 
in  the  Tower  but,  attempting  to  escape,  was  executed 
the  following  year.  Two  others,  Cressyner  and  Ast- 
wood,  were  pardoned  at  the  foot  of  the  gallows  in 
consideration  of  their  youth.  All  the  rebels  were  sub- 
sequently attainted  by  Act  of  Parliament  in  1495.^ 

A  confession  dated  14th  March  1495-6,  made  by 
one  Bernard  de  Vignolles,  implicates  several  men 
(Dr.  Hussey,  Archdeacon  of  London,  among  others) 
who  were  not  punished,  and  it  is  therefore  doubtful 
how  much  weight  can  be  given  to  it  in  details  ;  at 
the  same  time  it  throws  a  flood  of  light  upon  the 
nature  of  the  intrigues  by  which  Henry  was  sur- 
rounded. There  is  an  extraordinary  story  of  how 
the  conspirators,  wishing  to  kill  "  the  king  and  his 
children,  his  mother,  and  those  near  his  person," 
visited  an  astrologer  in  Rome,  and  how,  the  first  man 
failing,  they  obtained  from  a  second  a  box  of  oint- 
ment to  spread  along  and  across  some  door  or  passage 
through  which  the  king  would  walk,  which  would 
bring  about  his  murder  by  those  who  loved  him  best.- 

The  conspiracy  was  to  claim  a  much  more 
exalted  victim.     The  information  given   by  Clifford 

1  City  Chron.,  203;  Pol.  Verg.,  592;  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  504-7;  Stat., 
u.  632-3. 

2  See  Brit.  Mus.  Add.  MSS.,  5485,  f.  230  ;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII., 
ii.  318-23  ;  Arch.,  xxvii.  205-9. 


124  HENRY    VII  [i494 

implicated  Sir  William  Stanley,  whose  help  at 
the  critical  moment  had  given  Henry  victory 
at  Bos  worth  Field.  He  enjoyed  a  full  measure  of 
Henry's  confidence,  held  high  office  at  court,  and  his 
brother  was  the  king's  stepfather.  When  one  of 
those  nearest  him  fell  into  treason,  the  king's  hardly 
given  confidence  must  have  been  shaken.  Unfortu- 
nately the  evidence  of  Stanley's  share  in  the  conspiracy 
is  slight,  but  he  seems  to  have  promised  Clifford 
to  help  the  pretender  with  men  and  money.  ^  Facts 
which  came  to  light  many  years  later  (1521)  throw 
light  upon  Henry's  characteristic  conduct  and  his 
"  convenient  diligence  for  inveigling."  It  appears 
that  Henry  knew  of  Sir  William  Stanley's  treason 
two  or  three  years  before  he  laid  it  to  his  charge, 
"  and  covertly  watched  him,  keeping  it  secret  and 
always  gathered  upon  him  more  and  more."  -  Stanley 
was  tried  before  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  sitting  in 
Westminster  Hall  at  the  end  of  January,  and  was 
beheaded  on  16th  February  1493-4.  The  whole  of 
his  vast  wealth  fell  to  the  king.^ 

The  deadly  character  of  the  plot  that  was  checked 
for  a  time  by  these  executions  appears  from  certain 
documents  executed  by  the  pretender  in  December 
and  January.  Perkin  Warbeck's  pretensions  had 
reached  the  pitch  of  disposing  of  the  towns  and 
castles  of  England  and  of  the  succession  to  the  throne. 
He  actually  acknowledged  Maximilian,  in  return  for 

'  See  Eng.  Hist.  Rev.,  xiv.  529-34,  where  Mr.  Archbold  prints  a 
report  of  Stanley's  trial,  from  which  it  appears  that  CUfford  was 
Stanley's  go-between  with  Warbeck  from  1493  onwards. 

2  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VIII.  (ed.  Brewer),  iii.  1,  490. 

'  According  to  Polydor  Vergil  he  confessed  his  crime.  Pol.  Verg., 
693;  City  Chron.,  pp.  203-5.  Andre's  statements  are  incorrect. 
Vita,  69.  Henrj'  paid  the  expenses  of  Stanley's  fiineral,  and  made 
grants  to  his  servants.     Excerpta  Hist.,  101,  102. 


1494-5]       PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497       125 

his  generous  renunciation  of  an  apocryphal  claim  to 
the  English  crown,  as  his  heir  in  the  throne  of  Eng- 
land, if  he  died  without  male  issue.  He  promised 
to  the  Duchess  Margaret,  in  whose  mind  the  loss  of 
the  English  lands  granted  her  by  Edward  IV.  and 
confiscated  by  Henry  VII.  still  rankled,  the  town  and 
castle  of  Scarborough  as  well  as  the  manor  of  Hunsdon 
and  the  arrears  of  dowry  for  which  she  had  long  been 
clamouring.^  But  the  execution  of  Stanley  and  the 
others  was  fatal  to  these  preposterous  schemes.  The 
back  of  the  conspiracy  was  broken,  and  the  danger 
of  a  foreign  invasion  combined  with  a  Yorkist  revolt 
passed  away.  Henceforth  the  conspirators  in  Eng- 
land "  were  as  sand  without  lime." 

The  aggressive  policy  of  Charles  VIII.  indirectly 
strengthened  the  position  of  Perkin  Warbeck.  In 
the  autumn  of  1494,  Europe  viewed  with  alarm  the 
young  king's  invasion  of  Italy  in  support  of  his  claim 
to  the  throne  of  Naples.  By  the  end  of  February 
Naples  had  fallen.  His  magnificent  march  through 
Italy  was  unopposed.  All  Europe  Avas  alarmed. 
Ferdinand  of  Spain,  lately  the  ally  of  France,  became 
active  in  bringing  together  her  enemies.  A  revival 
of  the  coalition  against  France  took  place,  the  Pope, 
Spain,  Maximilian,  Milan  and  Venice  binding  them- 
selves together  for  mutual  defence  in  the  Holy  League 
of  31st  March  1495.  In  view  of  the  French  danger, 
the  attitude  of  Spain  changed  ;  the  English  alliance 
was  once  more  important,  and  an  effort  was  made  to 
detach  Henry  from  France.  A  long  delayed  answer 
to  Henry's  overtures  was  sent  early  in  1495,  declaring 
that,  since  the  former  treaties  were  invalid  for  lack 

>  Documents  in  Archives  of  Antwerp,  quoted  by  Dr.  Gairdner, 
Perkin  Warbeck,  pp.  290-2. 


126  HENRY   VII  [1494 

of  Henry's  signature,  Spain  had  been  obliged  to  make 
peace  with  France.  Henry  had  already  shown  that 
Italy  was  not  outside  the  range  of  his  foreign  policy, 
and  his  interest  in  Italian  affairs  was  noticed  by  the 
Milanese  envoy.  ' '  He  is  most  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  affairs  of  Italy  and  receives  especial  informa- 
tion of  every  event.  .  .  .  The  merchants,  most  especi- 
ally the  Florentines,  never  cease  giving  the  King  of 
England  advices."  He  had  obtained  the  nominal 
but  practically  useless  alliance  of  the  Duke  of  Milan 
in  the  Brittany  affair,^  and  had  even  thought  of  a 
marriage  between  him  and  the  queen's  sister.  In 
1493  he  had  approached  another  of  the  Italian  princes, 
sending  the  Order  of  the  Garter  to  Alfonzo,  then  Duke 
of  Calabria,  who  became  King  of  Naples  in  1494,  on 
the  eve  of  the  French  invasion.  Henry  had  been  on 
very  friendly  terms  with  Charles  of  France,  but  even 
he  was  beginning  to  show  uneasiness  about  his 
designs  in  Italy.  He  was  reluctant  to  see  an  inde- 
pendent and  friendly  kingdom  swallowed  up  by  the 
advancing  French  monarchy,  but  his  offer  to  mediate, 
conveyed  by  the  Richmond  herald,  had  come  to 
nothing.  In  1495  the  herald  was  again  despatched 
to  inquire  into  affairs  in  Italy,  assure  Charles  that 
Henry  had  the  love  and  obedience  of  his  subjects  as 
fully  as  any  of  his  predecessors,  and  allude  to  the 
futility  of  the  claims  of  the  "  garcony  To  the  powers, 
however,  the  alliance  between  France  and  England 
seemed  unimpaired,  so  that  any  attack  on  the  latter 
would  weaken  the  force  opposed  to  the  coalition. 
Maximilian,  therefore,  at  last  roused  himself  to  a  de- 
termined effort  to  set  a  pretender  on  the  throne  of 
England  and  replace  a  friend  of  the  King  of  France 

1  27th  Ju]y  1490.     See  above,  p.  99. 


1495]        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497         127 

by  a  creature  of  his  own.     As  an  Italian  diplomatist 

put  it,  "  If  the  Duke  of  York  obtained  the  crown, 

the  King  of  the  Romans  and  the  League  might  avail 

themselves  of  England  against  the  King  of  France     .    ,  , 

as  if  the  island  were  their  own."  ^     Henry's  policy. .  j  liftxUxf^  S 

had  made  ''the  island"  count  in  European  politics, 

and  the  powers  were  anxious  to  replace  him  by  a  man    ' 

of  straw,  or  at  all  events  to  stir  up  trouble  for  him         f^^^vJix^ 

at  home,  that  would  prevent  him  from  interfering 

abroad.     Thus  behind  the  pretender  was  the  whole    ^ 

weight  of  the  Holy  League. 

In  May  the  jireparations  were  completed.  An 
embassy  from  Scotland  had  promised  Perkin  the 
support  of  James  IV.,  the  duchess  appealed  to  the 
Pope  on  behalf  of  her  nephew  and  took  the  oppor- 
tunity of  vilifying  Henry's  ancestry  and  describing 
him  as  an  usurper  of  the  throne  by  force  of  arms. 
The  adventurer  sailed  from  Flanders  at  the  end  of 
June  with  troops  provided  by  the  needy  but  hopeful 
Maximilian  at  great  inconvenience.^  On  3rd  of  July 
Warbeck  and  his  fleet  of  fourteen  ships  appeared  off 
Deal.  Five  or  six  hundred  of  his  men  landed  ; 
Perkin,  suspecting  a  snare,  remained  afloat.  Finding 
they  "  cowde  haue  no  comfort  of  the  cuntre  "  they 
withdrew  towards  their  ships,  but  were  attacked  by 
the  country  people  under  the  Mayor  of  Sandwich, 
and   beaten   off   before   the   king's  troops   arrived.  ^ 

1  Brown,  Ven.  Cal,  Nos.  651,  677. 

'  Ibid.,  No.  648.  The  exact  strength  of  Perkin's  force  is  un- 
certain. The  City  Chronicle  gives  the  number  as  1400  (p.  205). 
The  Venetian  ambassadors  wrote  of  1500,  "  and  mariners  besides." 
The  report  that  Perkin  had  10,000  men  with  him  as  weU  as  a  Scotch 
fleet  and  troops  was  an  exaggerated  story  spread  by  the  Milanese 
ambassador.  Brown,  Ven.  Cal.,  No.  642.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
the  Scotch  sent  any  help.  '  City  Chron.,  206-7. 


128  HENRY    VII  [1495 

Two  of  his  followers  were  slain,  others  drowned,  and 
169  were  captured.  His  great  army  of  "  valiant 
captains  of  all  nations,  some  bankrupts,  some  false 
English  sanctuary  men,  some  thieves,  robbers,  and 
vagabonds,"  had  not  inspired  confidence  among  the 
Kentish  peasants.  Warbeck  did  not  act  on  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  villagers  "  that  he  should  return  to  his 
father  and  mother,  who  lived  in  France  and  were  well 
known  there,"  but  sailed  away  to  Ireland,  deserting 
his  beaten  followers.  The  Sheriff  of  Kent  led  159  of 
them  to  London,  "  railed  in  ropes,  like  horses  drawing 
in  a  cart."  Some  were  imprisoned  in  the  Tower  and 
others  in  Newgate.  The  king  was  in  no  mood  to  be 
merciful ;  the  prisoners  were  arraigned  and  condemned. 
One  hundred  and  fifty  were  hanged  in  Kent,  Essex, 
Sussex,  and  Norfolk  "  b^'^  the  sea  side,"  the  foreign 
leaders  were  beheaded  in  London  and  their  heads 
set  upon  London  Bridge.^ 

The  long  threatened  expedition,  the  climax  of  so 
many  ambitious  schemes,  had  been  a  miserable  failure. 
The  effect  of  the  fiasco  in  Europe  was  to  strengthen 
Henrj^'s  position  and  to  discredit  the  claims  of  the 
pretender.  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  who  had  never 
believed  in  Warbeck,  wrote  in  August  to  their  am- 
bassador making  light  of  his  pretensions.  "  As  for 
the  affair  of  him  who  calls  himself  the  Duke  of  York 
we  hold  it  for  a  jest."  '^  Henry's  improved  position 
appears  from  Ferdinand's  anxiety  for  him  to  become 
a  member  of  the  league  against  France,  as  he  had 
shown  some  intention  of  doing.     For  this  a  recon- 

1  City  Chron.,  pp.  206-7  ;  Pol.  Verg.  595-6  ;  Hall,  472  ;  Pasion 
Lett.,  iii.  386,  387  ;  ExccrptaHist.,  101 ;  BQVg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  pp.  58-60. 
Andre's  account  (p.  66)  is  brief  and  inaccurate. 

*  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  Nos.  99,  103. 


1495]        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497  129 

ciliation  with  Maximilian  was  necessary.  This  un- 
palatable suggestion  was  pressed  upon  Henry  with 
the  old  offer  of  the  Spanish  marriage,  and  in  August 
their  ambassador  was  instructed  to  sound  him  on  the 
question  of  joining  the  Holy  League.  A  new  alliance 
between  England  and  Spain  was  proposed,  the  King 
of  Spain  declaring  that  the  treaty  of  ^ledina  was 
invalid  because  the  King  of  England  had  not  sworn 
to  it.  This  description,  which  audaciously  made 
waste-paper  of  the  treaty  the  Spaniards  themselves 
had  spoken  of  as  "  concluded,"  showed  great  lack  of 
consideration  for  Henry's  feelings.  Henry,  however, 
faithful  as  ever  to  his  Spanish  dream,  "  spoke  always 
in  most  bland  words,"  and  professed  himself  willing 
to  be  reconciled  to  Maximilian  "  in  spite  of  his  in- 
gratitude." 1  The  King  of  Spain  at  the  same  time 
warned  Henry  against  French  treachery,  promised 
assistance  against  Perkin.  and  expressed  his  intention 
of  persuading  Maximilian  and  the  King  of  Scots  to 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  pretender.'  Maximilian, 
however,  who  in  his  sanguine  way  had  rejoiced  in 
vain  over  a  report  that  Warbeck's  invasion  of  England 
had  been  successful,^  still  seems  to  have  believed  in 
his  claims.  In  September  1495  he  T\Tote  to  the 
Pope  appealing  to  him  to  support  '"  Richard.  Duke  of 
York,  the  born  son  of  Edward,  the  lawful  and  late 
deceased  king,"  and  his  "  excellent  title  to  the  king- 
dom of  England."  *  Reconciliation  with  Henry 
seemed  quite  cut  of  the  question,  but  Maximilian's 
attitude  was  not  popular  with  the  other  European 

^  Berg.,  Spanish  CaZ.,  No.  103. 

*  Ihid.,  Nos.  92-99,  103,  107. 
3  Brown,  Ven.  Cal.,  No.  649. 

*  Ihid.,  iv.  1042. 


130  HENRY    VII  [1495 

powers.     In  England,  too,  the  King  of  the  Romans 
"  was  held  in  no  account."  ^ 

Perkin's  expedition  had  sailed  westward  after  the 
failure  of  the  attempt  in  Kent,  bound  for  Ireland, 
where  the  conspiracy  had  first  seen  the  light.  The 
years  that  had  gone  by  since  \Yarbeck  had  last  been 
in  Ireland  had  seen  a  great  change  there.  As  Henry 
had  informed  his  brother  Charles,  he  had  reduced  the 
wild  Irish  to  submission.  His  lordship  of  Ireland  had 
become  a  reality  ;  Kildare  had  been  deprived  of  the 
office  of  lord  deputy,  and  was  in  disgrace.  Sir  Edward 
Poynings  had  crushed  others  of  Perkin  Warbeck's 
former  adherents  and  was  in  command  of  a  disciplined 
English  force.  ^ 

The  pretender  reached  Ireland  at  the  end  of  July 
in  command  of  a  fleet  of  eleven  ships,  some  of  which 
were  probably  Scotch,^  and  boldly  attacked  Waterford, 
the  only  to\\Ti  which  had  been  consistently  loyal  to 
Henry  VII.  The  siege  lasted  for  eleven  days.  Poy- 
nings led  a  force  to  relieve  the  town,  and  on  3rd 
August  Warbeck  was  obliged  to  raise  the  siege  with 
the  loss  of  three  of  his  ships. ^  For  several  months, 
from  August  to  November,  when  he  reappeared  in 
Scotland,  we  have  no  record  of  his  doings.  Part  of 
the  gap  may  be  filled  by  importing  a  story  from  the 
Lambeth  MS.,-^  part  of  which  is.  no  doubt  wrongly, 
assigned  to  the  year  1497. ^^     According  to  this  story, 

1  Brown,  Ven.  Cal.,  No.  655.  *  See  below,  pp.  297-300. 

'  One  of  the  three  captured  by  the  EngUsh  was  called  "  le 
Kekeoute."     L.  arid  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  299. 

*  Carew  Papers,  472  ;  Hattcliffe's  report,  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII., 
ii.  297-318,  375;    Excerpta  Hist.,  100-103. 

*  Carew  Papers  (Misc.),  472. 

*  Dr.  Gairdner  discusses  this  point  fully  in  Perkin  Warbfl, 
pp.   321-326. 


1495]        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497         131 

Warbeck  on  raising  the  siege  of  Waterford  made  his 
way  to  Cork,  where  he  was  received  by  his  friend, 
John  Walters,  then  mayor.  Ships  from  Waterford 
followed  in  pursuit.  Finding  his  cause  in  Ireland 
hopeless  for  the  time,  Warbeck  decided  to  try  his  luck 
in  Scotland.  Here  part  of  another  narrative,  that 
of  Zurita  the  Spanish  historian,  may  be  dovetailed 
into  the  story,  and  we  can  trace  the  adventurer  sailing 
for  Scotland,  but  being  driven  back  and  wrecked 
upon  the  Irish  coast.  He  crossed  the  mountains  in 
disguise  to  a  small  Irish  port  and,  finding  another 
ship  at  last,  made  his  way  to  Scotland.^ 

It  is  not  quite  clear  to  what  extent  the  King  of 
Scotland  had  pledged  himself  to  Perkin.  As  Ave  have 
seen,  the  adventurer  applied  to  him  almost  at  the 
beginning  of  his  chequered  career.  It  is  probable 
that  the  story  he  told  appealed  to  the  romantic  strain 
in  the  Stuart  character,  while  policy  suggested  that  a 
pretender  to  the  English  throne  might  be  a  useful 
weapon.  There  is  no  proof  that  James  gave  help  to 
Warbeck  before  1495,-  when  he  is  found  negotiating 
with  the  Duchess  of  Burgundy  and  her  court  of 
disaffected  Yorkists.  In  the  spring  of  1495  a  Scotch 
invasion  of  England  was  contemplated.  James  cer- 
tainly made  preparations  to  send  ships  and  men  to 
assist  Perkin's  invasion  of  England,  and  votes  of 
money  are  recorded  for  the  "  passage  in  Ingland  in 
fortifieing  and  supleing  of  the  prince  of  Ingland, 
Richard,  Duke  of  York."  ^     At  all  events,  Warbeck 

1  Ibid.  Polydor  Vergil  and  Hall  are  wrong  in  saying  that  Perkin 
Warbeck  returned  to  Flanders  and  thence  went  to  Scotland. 
Pol.  Verg.,  p.  596  ;    Hall,  p.  472. 

s  Tytler,  Hist,  of  Scot.,  iii.  475  r». 

'  Gairdner,  Perkin  Warbeck,  p.  300,  quoting  Aberdeen  council 
registers. 


132  HENRY    VII  [1495 

having  failed  in  Ireland  felt  sure  of  a  welcome  in 
Scotland,  and  late  in  November  ^  he  appeared  at 
Stirling,  where  he  was  given  a  royal  recejition.- 
Great  preparations  had  been  made ;  hangings  had 
been  brought  from  Edinburgh,  and  his  royal  host 
presented  the  wanderer  and  his  attendants  with  a 
supply  of  garments  suitable  to  his  supposed  rank. 
There  are  notes  of  the  "  expenses  made  upon  Prince 
Richard  of  England  his  servitors,"  including  the 
purchase,  for  £28,  of  fourteen  ells  of  white  damask  to 
be  the  prince's  "spousing  gown,"  and  seven  ells  of 
velvet  (£21)  to  be  a  "  grete  coite  of  the  new  fassoune 
to  the  Prince  with  sleiffis."  He  received  a  handsome 
yearly  allowance,  and  even  his  offertory  at  Church 
festivals  was  not  forgotten.  Later,  at  Perth,  James 
presented  the  Duke  of  York  to  his  nobles ;  orders 
were  sent  out  to  the  sheriffs  to  assemble  troops,  and 
early  in  1493  arms  and  artillery  were  being  made.^ 
These  warlike  preparations,  however,  were  followed, 
as  often  happened  in  Perkin's  career,  by  a  long  delay. 
It  was  probably  about  this  time  that  James  found  a 
bride  for  the  adventurer  in  the  person  of  his  kins- 
woman. Lady  Katherine  Gordon.^  This  lady  lives 
again  after  long  years  in  the  graceful  and  poetic 
words  of  the  letter  ascribed  to  Perkin,  which  has  been 
unearthed    among    the    Spanish    archives.     "  Your 

1  The  date  was  either  November  20  or  November  27.  See  L. 
and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  327,  329.     Gairdner,  op.  cit.,  p.  301. 

^  Polydor  Vergil,  followed  by  Hall,  reports  a  speech  made  by 
Perkin  to  James  IV.  Though  the  whole  speech  was  an  effort  of 
the  historian's  imagination,  it  gives  a  useful  reflection  of  con- 
temporai-y  rumours  about  the  adventurer.  Pol.  Verg.,  p.  59fi  ; 
Hall,  p.  473  ;   see  Busch,  p.  345. 

3  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  330. 

♦  Pol.  Verg.,  p.  756. 


1496]        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497  133 

face,"  he  wrote,  "  bright  and  serene,  gives  splendour 
to  the  cloudy  sky,  your  eyes,  brilliant  as  the  stars, 
make  all  pain  to  be  forgotten  and  turn  despair  into 
delight.  All  look  at  your  neck  which  outshines 
pearls,  all  look  at  your  fine  forehead,  your  purple 
light  of  youth,  your  fair  hair.  .  .  .  Love  is  not  an 
earthly  thing,  it  is  heaven-born.  .  .  .  Farewell,  my 
soul  and  my  consolation,  you,  the  brightest  ornament 
of  Scotland,  farewell,  farewell."  '  Henceforward 
Lady  Katherine  followed  the  adventurer,  "  whom  she 
ever  fondly  loved,"  through  good  and  evil  fortune, 
to  the  end.  The  end  of  the  year  found  Perkin  still  in 
Scotland  appearing  in  public  as  a  royal  prince,  but  still 
unable  to  translate  his  shadowy  royalty  into  reality. 

Meanwhile,  in  England,  Henry  continued  his  pre- 
parations for  resisting  a  Scotch  invasion.  His  agents 
kept  him  informed  of  what  went  on  in  Scotland.  The 
northern  counties  were  armed,  and  in  January  and 
February  ships  were  manned  and  sent  off  against 
Scotland."^ 

In  view  of  the  crisis,  writs  for  a  new  Parliament, 
the  first  since  1492,  had  been  issued.  It  met  on  14th 
October  1495.  The  first  statute  passed  was  designed 
to  strengthen  the  king's  hands  at  the  critical  moment. 
It  enacted  that  no  one  who  supported  the  king  de 
facto  should  be  liable  to  impeachment  or  attainder, 
but  excluded  from  the  benefit  of  the  Act  any  person 
who  should  desert  Henry  in  the  future.  Of  course, 
the  Act  was  open  to  the  obvious  objection  that  it 
would  be  repealed  at  once  by  any  usurper  who  suc- 
ceeded in  dethroning  Henry.     But  though  it  could 

»  Berg.,  Span.  Cal,  No.  119. 

^  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  376  ;  Rymer,  xii.  647  ;  Excerpta  Hist., 
pp.  110,  111. 


134  HENRY    VII  [1496 

not  protect  the  king's  faithful  adherents  from  the 
consequences  that  would  follow  his  defeat,  it  may 
have  encouraged  wavering  Yorkists,  who  were 
genuinely  unable  to  swalloAV  the  ambiguities  of  the 
Tudor  title,  to  give  their  support  to  the  man  to  whom 
Parliament  declared  allegiance  was  due.  Henry 
realised  that  he  was  faced  with  the  most  dangerous 
combination  that  had  threatened  him  since  the 
beginning  of  his  troubled  reign,  and  he  feared 
serious  Yorkist  defections  in  the  northern  counties  on 
the  arrival  of  the  "  Duke  of  York  "  and  his  Scotch 
army.  Though  war  was  imminent  Henry  abstained 
from  asking  for  a  money  grant.  He  was  empowered 
to  collect  the  arrears  of  the  last  benevolence,  received 
a  grant  of  one  tenth  from  Convocation,  and  was 
confirmed  in  his  possession  of  the  lands  forfeited  by 
the  Yorkist  conspirators  who  had  been  executed 
in  1495.^ 

But,  while  preparing  for  war,  Henry  did  not  give 
up  hope  of  peace.  He  sent  two  embassies  to  Scotland, 
in  June  and  August  1496,  to  propose  a  marriage 
between  the  Princess  Margaret  and  James  of  Scotland. 
There  is  no  record  of  the  proceedings  of  the  ambas- 
sadors, but  James  was  obviously  disinclined  to  discuss 
the  matter  and  continued  his  preparations,  which 
were  duly  reported  to  Henry  by  his  spies.  Henry 
had  long  ago  elaborated  an  underground  policy  in 
Scotland,  and  spies  kept  him  well  informed  of  the 
movements  of  his  foes.  Scotch  nobles,  including  the 
Earl  of  Angus  and  Lord  Bothwell,  were  among  his 
agents.  Lord  Bothwell  had  already  taken  Henry's 
pay  for  his  share  in  an  unsuccessful  plot  to  kidnap 

»  Rot.  Pari,  vi.  458-508  ;  Stat.,  ii.  568-635.  For  the  other 
legislation  of  this  ParUament,  see  below,  p.  255. 


1491,1        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497  135 

the  young  king,  and  had  been  for  some  time  in 
England,  but  he  had  contrived  to  estabUsh  himself 
in  James's  confidence  and  return  to  Scotland.  His 
long  reports  to  Henry  are  extraordinarily  treacherous. 
He  seems  to  have  been  destitute  of  the  elementary 
instincts  of  patriotism,  and  hastened  to  betray  his 
country's  secrets  for  gold.  He  kept  close  watch  upon 
the  king,  reporting  to  Henry  that  the  date  of  the 
invasion  was  fixed  for  September,  revealed  the  king's 
want  of  money,  the  discontent  of  the  people,  and 
even  details  of  the  artillery  at  Edinburgh.  Further, 
he  attempted  to  win  over  the  king's  brother,  and 
his  letters  contain  hints  of  a  plan  of  abducting  and 
carrying  him  off  into  England.  He  wrote  that  it 
would  be  best  now  in  this  "  long  night  within  his 
tent  to  enterprise  the  matter  ;  for  he  has  no  watch 
but  the  king's  appointed  to  be  about  him."  ^ 

By  this  time  the  opinion  of  Europe  was  inclining 
against  the  adventurer.  If  Henry  was  to  enter  the 
League  he  must  be  freed  from  the  embarrassment  of 
Perkin's  performances.  Ferdinand  was  again  very 
anxious  to  win  Henry's  friendship,  and  his  attitude 
was  becoming  markedly  cordial.  The  Anglo-Spanish 
marriage,  long  a  project  in  the  air,  became  the  subject 
of  serious  negotiation.  In  the  summer  of  1496  a  new 
effort  was  being  made  by  the  Spanish  ambassadors 
to  induce  Henry  to  enter  the  League  and  promise  to 
invade  France  in  person,  and,  in  return,  they  showed 
themselves  unusually  amenable  when  discussing  the 
everlasting  question  of  the  marriage  portion,  and 
genuinely  anxious  to  heal  the  quarrel  between  England 
and  Scotland.  It  was  now  the  turn  of  Spain  to  de- 
claim  against   the   delay   in   the   conclusion   of   the 

1  EUis,  Letters  I.  (1),  23. 


136  HENRY    VII  [1496 

English  alliance,  a  specially  awkward  feature  of  it 
being  that  English  merchants  were  carrying  on  a  trade 
between  France  and  Spain  which  was  debarred  to 
the  subjects  of  both  belligerents.^ 

Henry's  position  in  diplomacy  at  this  moment  was 
undoubtedly  strong.     As  de  Puebla  pointed  out  to 
him,  "  the  House  of  England  now  sees  what  never  • 
before  has  been  seen,  that  is  to  say  that  the  whole 
Christian  world  unites  and  allies  itself  with  it,"     The 
strength  of  Henry's  position  was  chiefly  due  to  the . 
caution  which  had  governed  his  relations  with  France,  ^ 
and  the  diplomatic  instinct  with  which  he  extracted 
gain  from  a  complicated  situation,  profiting  by  the  • 
fact  that  he  seemed  to  hold  the  balance  in  Europe. 
France  and   Spain    were   vying   with   each  other   in  . 
repudiating  Perkin,  and  trying  to  make  peace  between  • 
Scotland  and   England,     Early   in  1496   Hemy  was  . 
negotiating    for    a    personal    meeting    with    Charles, 
reminding  him  of  his  offer  of  help,  though  he  affected  • 
to  make  light  of  the  Scotch  danger,  and  offering  to 
mediate  between  him  and  the  Holy  League.     A  mar- 
riage between   Prince  Arthur  and   the  daughter  of 
the  Duke  of  Bourbon  had  been  proposed  by  Charles, 
but  Henry's  answer  was   cold,   and  he  hinted  that 
Charles's  aggressions  in    Italy  might    cost    him    the 
English  alliance.     A  parade  of  friendship  with  France 
served  Henry's  purpose  in  driving  the  members  of  the  • 
League,  especially  Spain,  to  make  still  higher  bids  for 
his  alliance,  while  his  negotiations   with  the  League 
alarmed  Charles  into  proving  how  valuable  his  friend- 
ship could  be  to  England.     In  the  beginning  of  the 
j'^ear  he  had  sent  Henry  a  paper  describing  Warbeck  as 
the  son  of  a  barber  and  offering  to  send  his  parents 

*  Berg.,  Spanish  L'al.,  pp.  106,  107. 


1496]        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497         137 

into  England.  1  A  French  embassy  under  Concres- 
sault  went  to  Scotland  with  Henry's  knowledge, 
armed  with  instructions  to  offer  100,000  crowns  for 
the  surrender  of  Warbeck,'-  and  to  propose  that  James 
should  marry  a  French  princess.  Henry  in  the  same 
way  was  trying  to  induce  Charles  VIII.  to  surrender 
James's  cousin,  the  Duke  of  Albany,  who  was  the 
leader  of  the  rebels  and  a  refugee  in  France— perhaps 
in  the  hope  of  playing  off  a  Scotch  pretender  against 
the  English  one.^ 

Maximilian's  attitude  was  the  great  difficulty  in 
the  way  of  Henry's  entrance  into  the  League.  An 
ambassador  sent  by  Henry  reported  that  Maximilian 
was  surrounded  by  adherents  of  "  him  of  York,"  and 
was  communicating  with  Warbeck  and  the  King  of 
Scotland.''  Spanish  influence  was  strong  with  Maxi- 
milian, and  would  be  stronger  when  the  proposed 
marriage  between  the  Archduke  Philip  and  the  Infanta 
Juana  came  off ;  ^  but  when  this  influence  was  used  to 
try  and  get  him  to  come  to  terms  with  Henry  he 
showed  great  reluctance.  To  the  Spanish  ambassadors 
who  pressed  him  to  acquiesce  in  Henr>^'s  inclusion- 
in  the  League,  he  at  last  give  a  grudging  assent, 
"although  he  could  expect  neither  benefit  nor 
favour  from  the  King  of  England  "  ; "  but  when  Lord 
Egremont  arrived  as  Henry's  ambassador  at  Nord- 

1  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  i.  p.  92.     This  offer  being  reported  to  Spain, 
brought  a  bid  of  the  same  kind  from  Ferdinand. 

2  The  same  brilliant  idea   entered  into  the  Spanish  negotiations 
without  success. 

3  Cott.  MSS.  D.,  \-i.  26o  ;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  292-296;  Arch., 
xxvii.  203. 

*  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  i.  110. 

*  Juana  sailed  for  Flanders  in  August  1496.     Ibid.,  i.  119. 
6  Brown,  Ven.  Cal.,  p.  225. 


138  HENRY    VII  [U96 

lingen  in  January  1495-6  to  meet  the  envoys  of  the 
League,  Maximilian  proposed  terms  which  were  almost 
insulting.  He  insisted  that  Henry  should  at  once 
make  war  upon  France,  and  offered  to  negotiate  a 
ten  years'  truce  and  peace  between  him  and  "  the 
Duke  of  York,"  Ambassadors  from  other  members 
of  the  Holy  League,  Naples,  Venice,  and  Milan,  who 
were  present,  followed  the  Spanish  lead  and  strongly 
urged  Maximilian  to  omit  the  irritating  clauses  dealing 
with  the  Duke  of  York.  The  Spanish  ambassador 
also  pointed  out,  that  as  they  knew  Henry  to  be 
"  a  very  sage  king  and  to  be  well  advised,"  he  would 
not  join  a  defensive  league  under  an  obligation  to 
attack  France  immediately,  which  did  not  bind  other 
members.  Maximilian  was  persuaded  to  dismiss 
Egremont  with  a  present  of  a  gold  cup  and  100 
florins,  and  with  an  answer  which  acquiesced  in  the 
inclusion  of  England  in  the  League  and  omitted  all 
mention  of  the  "  Duke  of  York." 

This  seemed  satisfactory,  and  Henry  responded 
by  sending  Christopher  Urswick  as  his  ambassador 
to  Maximilian.  He  arrived  at  the  end  of  April  1496, 
but  found  that  the  King  of  the  Romans  was  again 
wavering.  He  talked  much  of  his  obligations  to  main- 
tain the  cause  of  the  "  Duke  of  York,"  from  whom  he 
had  recently,  in  February,  received  letters  stating  that 
he  hoped  for  success  owing  to  disturbances  imminent 
in  England.  He  had  a  suspicion  that  Henry  did  not 
mean  to  break  with  the  King  of  France,  but  simply 
wished  to  join  the  League  in  order  to  prevent  them 
supporting  Warbeck.  Though  he  personally  wished 
to  dismiss  Henry's  envoy,  he  consulted  the  ambas- 
sadors of  the  other  j^owers  included  in  the  League  as 
to  whether    he    ought    "  to    dissemble    and    dismiss 


1496]         PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497        139 

him  with  fair  words,"  and  they  advised  him  to 
admit  Henry  on  his  own  terms,  if  he  refused  to 
join  under  the  obhgation  to  begin  the  attack  on 
France.  The  Venetian  ambassador  was  particularly 
pressing,  as  he  had  received  private  assurances  from 
Urswick  that  the  English  king  was  only  prevented 
from  attacking  the  French,  "  England's  greatest  and 
oldest  enemies,"  through  fear  of  alienating  their  ally 
the  King  of  Scotland — '*  who  although  the  poorest 
king  in  Christendom,  could  put  into  the  field  for  a 
period  of  tliree  weeks  an  army  of  30,000  men,  his 
subjects  being  bound  to  serve  him  for  that  length  of 
time  at  their  own  expense."  ^  Urswick  adopted  a 
very  firm  attitude,  indeed  Maximilian  hinted  that  he 
had  been  suborned  by  France  and  had  prejudiced 
Henr\-  against  him.  He  refused  to  pledge  his  master 
to  an  offensive  war  against  France,  and  hinted  that 
he  might  even  find  it  impossible  to  send  troops  to  join 
in  a  defensive  war,  owing  to  being  hampered  by  the 
hostility  of  the  Kings  of  Scotland  and  Denmark  and 
by  the  "  Duke  of  York  "  and  Irish  rebels.  "  The 
king,"  he  said,  "  is  compelled  to  be  much  on  the  watch 
against  the  youth  who  says  he  is  son  of  King  Edward 
and  went  lately  to  Scotland,  whose  king  received  him 
with  many  promises."  He  made  no  secret  of  Henry's 
distrust  of  Maximilian  arising  from  their  former  rela- 
tions, and  of  his  fear  that  the  latter  would  do  little  or 
nothing  against  France.  The  pressure  of  his  allies  made 
Maximilian  dismiss  Urswick  in  a  friendly  manner — 
the  intentions  of  the  confederates  being  explained  in 
a  "  suitable  and  very  flowery  discourse,"  with  the 
promise   that   when   Henry   had   joined   the   League 

*  Brown,  Fen.  Cal.,  p.  241. 


140  HENRY    VII  [1496 

they  would  use  their  influence  to  arrange  his  differ- 
ences with  the  supporters  of  the  "  Duke  of  York."  ^ 

To  Spain  the  mutual  antipathy  between  Henrj'  and 
Maximilian  was  most  unwelcome.  Spain's  jealousy 
of  France  made  her  the  life  and  soul  of  the  Holy 
League,  and  her  ambassadors  were  indefatigable  in 
trying  to  free  Henry  from  the  embarrassments  which 
prevented  him  from  joining  the  League.  They 
showed  themselves  ready  to  assent  to  Henry's  scheme 
for  a  marriage  between  his  daughter  Margaret  and 
the  King  of  Scotland,  and  had  a  great  part  in 
arranging  a  commercial  treaty  between  Henr}^  and 
the  Archduke  Philip  (February  1495-G),  which  con- 
tained satisfactory  clauses  forbidding  the  harbouring 
of  rebels.-  Further,  full  powers  for  concluding  the 
marriage  treaty  were  issued  in  January  1495-6.^ 

Thus  stood  affairs  in  June,  the  confederates  pressing 
for  Henry's  inclusion  on  his  own  terms,  as  a  guarantee 
that  if  he  would  not  attack  France,  he  would  at  all 
events  not  help  her.  The  march  of  events  made  the 
matter  very  urgent.  Charles,  who  had  been  obliged^ 
to  withdraw  most  of  his  troops  from  Italy  at  the  end 
of  1495,  was  preparing  another  expedition  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1496,  and  the  League  wanted  Henry's  alliance 
on  any  terms.  The  Pope  pressed  him  to  take  up 
arms  against  France  in  defence  of  the  Holy  See,  "  to 
send  succour  without  delay,  and  not  permit  the 
Church  to  be  trampled  on."*  The  proclamation  bj^ 
the  Pope  of  a  crusade  in  England  (half  the  profits  of 
which  were  to  go  to  the  king)  was  held  out  as  an 

'  Brown,  Ven.  Cal,  p.  241,  No3.  674-7,  690,  693,  698-703,  706. 

*  Rymer,  Feeder  a,  xii.  579-81. 

»  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  Nos.  123,  127  ;  Rymer,  Foedera,  xii.  661-3. 

*  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  p.  108. 


1496]        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497         141 

inducement,  a  singular  attempt  to  apply  Spanish 
methods  to  England.^  It  is  obvious  from  the  tone 
of  the  Spanish  negotiations  that  Henry  was  drifting 
away  from  France.  In  June  1496  he  promised  tor 
make  a  demonstration  against  France  by  reviewing 
his  troops  and  arming  his  navy,  and  in  July  it  was 
reported  that  many  of  his  subjects  were  inclined  for 
war.  The  king,  however,  announced  that  he  would 
not  promise  to  make  M^ar  on  France  while  affairs  in  1 
Scotland  were  still  unsettled.-  The  members  of  the  ^ 
League  were  much  alarmed  at  hearing  a  report  that 
Henry  had  sent  ambassadors  to  France  to  arrange  his 
difficulties,  but  ultimately,  on  18th  July,  the  king  was 
formally  admitted  into  the  Holy  League  on  his  own 
terms,  his  accession  being  published  in  Rome  on  that 
date.^  A  printed  copy,  adorned  with  the  portraits 
of  the  allies,  was  circulated,  there  were  processions, 
bell-ringings,  and  bonfires.  The  document  embody- 
ing Henry's  admission  to  the  League  was  confirmed 
by  him  at  Windsor  on  23rd  September  1496,  and,  by 
a  solemn  procession  at  St.  Paul's  on  1st  of  November, 
he  gave  a  public  demonstration  of  his  joy  at  entering 
the  League.  On  the  same  day  he  received  the  sword 
and  cap  of  maintenance  sent  by  the  Pope,  and  a  few 
days  later  a  second  Spanish  marriage  treaty  was 
signed.*  Chance  and  Henry's  skill  had  combined  to 
give  England  a  splendid  position  in  Europe,  and  on 
the  action  of  her  king  hung  the  destinies  of  France. 

His  new  allies,  Spain,  Italy,  the  Papacy  and  the 
Empire,  had  been  making  continued  efforts  to  bring 

1  Ibid.,  p.  121.  2  Ibid.,  pp.  101,  103,  105. 

'  The  negotiations  were  carried  through  at  Rome  by  Henry's 
secretary,  Robert  Sherboume.  Brown,  Ven.  Col.,  Nos.  691,  713-4, 
717-23  ;  Rymer,  Foedera,  xii.  638-42. 

*  Brown,  Ven.  Cal.,  No.  725.     See  below,  p.  204. 


142  HENRY    VII  [1496 

about  an  understanding  between  Henry  and  James 
of  Scotland.  Ferdinand's  ambassadors  advised  James 
to  withdraw  his  support  of  Perkin — whom  they 
always  allude  to  as  "  him  of  York,"  or  "  him  who 
calls  himself  the  Duke  of  York  " — make  peace  with 
Henrj^  and  join  the  Holy  League.  At  the  same  time, 
"  for  the  purpose  of  deluding  the  King  of  Scots  as 
long  as  possible  with  hopes,"  the  Scotch  ambassadors 
in  Spain  were  beguiled  with  a  favourable  reception 
of  their  suggestion  that  a  Spanish  princess  should 
be  given  to  James  in  marriage.^  The  Pope  added 
his  persuasions,  but  James  would  do  no  more  than 
give  a  vague  promise  to  keep  peace,  a  promise  which 
he  broke  almost  at  once.  Deaf  to  the  remonstrances 
of  foreign  powers,  blind  to  the  dissatisfaction  of  his 
subjects,  he  was  bent  upon  invading  England. 

On  the  2nd  of  September  Perkin  signed  an  agreement 
by  which  he  promised  on  "  recovering  "  the  kingdom 
of  England  to  surrender  Berwick  and  seven  "  sheriff- 
doms," together  with  an  indemnity  of  100,000  marks. 
Later  in  the  month  the  King  of  Scots  crossed  the 
border  with  Perkin  Warbeck  and  about  1500  men, 
but,  though  dignified  by  the  name  of  an  invasion,  it 
was  little  more  than  a  border  raid  on  a  large  scale. 
Bold  words  were  not  wanting.  An  arrogantly  worded 
proclamation  was  issued  in  the  name  of  "  King 
Richard  of  England,"  which  spoke  of  the  usurpation, 
murders,  and  exactions  of  "  one  Henry  Tjdder  in  this 
our  realm,"  set  a  price  of  £1000  upon  the  king's 
head  and  made  many  large  promises.^  But  Perkin's 
strength  lay  in  words  rather  than  deeds,  and  he  and 

*  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  No.  137. 

*  This  proclamation  has  already  been  printed  in  Spedding's 
edition  of  Bacon's  works.     Henry  VII.,  252-5. 


1496]        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497  143 

his  royal  host,  though  "  makyng  greate  boste  and 
brag,"  did  very  little  in  England.  His  men  passed 
over  the  border  and  then  gave  themselves  up  to 
plundering  and  ravaging  the  countryside,  burning 
towns  and  villages  and  killing  women  and  children. 
If  they  intended  in  this  way,  as  Hall  suggests, 
"  to  apalle  and  daunte  the  hartes  of  the  poore 
commons  so  that  for  very  feare  they  should  be 
enforced  and  compelled  to  submit  them  selfes 
to  this  newe  found  Mawmet,"  they  were  singu- 
larly unsuccessful.  The  men  of  Northumberland 
failed  to  rally  round  the  gorgeous  gold-embroidered 
standard  of  the  Duke  of  York,  and  the  adventurer's 
outburst  of  pity  and  indignation  at  the  brutal  treat- 
ment of  his  "  owne  naturall  subjects  and  vassals  " 
came  too  late.  His  "  ridiculous  mercy  and  foolish  com- 
passion "  provoked  James  to  suggest  that  Perkin  was 
distressing  himself  unnecessarily  over  his  subjects,  not 
one  of  whom  had  taken  up  his  cause.  The  raid  was 
the  most  hopeless  failure.  The  Scots  apparently  only 
advanced  four  miles  beyond  the  border,  and  retired 
after  a  few  days  in  a  panic,  as  it  appeared  that  the 
country  was  rising  against  them,  and  the  approach  of 
an  English  force  under  the  Nevills  was  rumoured.^ 
On  the  21st  of  September  Perkin  was  back  in  Scotland. 
He  had  struck  his  blow  and  failed.  The  invasion  had 
come  and  gone  without  the  great  revolt  of  disaffected 
Yorkists  in  the  neighbouring  counties  which  Henry 
had  half  feared  in  spite  of  his  bold  words.-      It  proved, 

1  City  Chron.,  p.  210;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  330;  Pol.  Verg., 
598 ;  Hall,  475. 

*  By  November  nimours  had  reached  Venice  that  a  great  battle 
had  been  fought  in  which  15,000  men  were  killed.  Brown,  Ven. 
Cal.,  No.  727.  Similar  rumours  were  again  prevalent  in  March 
of  the  following  year.     Ibid.,  No.  735. 


144  HENRY    VII  [1496 

if  proof  were  needed,  that  the  new  dynasty  had  taken 
root  in  the  English  soil,  and  that  even  the  north  had 
learnt  loyalty  to  the  Tudor.  ^ 

The  failure  of  the  expedition  closed  the  most 
successful  period  of  Warbeck's  career.  James  IV.  had 
hoped  for  much,  his  bitter  disappointment  made  him 
consider  the  possibility  of  getting  rid  of  his  guest. 
According  to  the  chroniclers  he  "  every  day  more 
and  more  neglected  and  lesse  phantesied  and  gave 
credite  to  him,"  and  though  he  may  have  continued 
to  believe  in  the  "  Duke  of  York's  "  claim  (and  his 
words  support  this  view,  as  he  spoke  of  him  as  *'  the 
Duke  of  York  "  long  after  his  execution)  he  was 
learning  that  those  claims  would  meet  with  little 
support  in  England  and  could  not  be  profitably  ex- 
ploited in  the  interests  of  Scotland.  But  James  was. 
too  chivalrous  to  follow  the  dictates  of  policy,  and- 
Perkin  remained  in  the  country  as  his  guest  for  somer 
time  longer.  Henry  did  not  proceed  at  once  to  the. 
retaliatory  measures  urged  upon  him  by  his  spy  Both- 
well.-  The  calmer  counsels  of  the  Spanish  ambassadors 
prevailed  for  a  time,  de  Puebla's  efforts  being  seconded. 
by  those  of  Don  Pedro  de  Ayala,  who  arrived  in 
Scotland  as  ambassador  from  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.- 
He  was  an  extremely  able  diplomatist,  and  the  strongs 
influence  he  soon  acquired  over  James  was  used  to 
prevent  him  from  making  a  further  attack  on  Eng-,^ 
land.  In  London  de  Puebla  was  trying  to  persuadex^ 
Henry  not  to  undertake  a  punitive  expedition,  "  he 

'  A  proclamation  issued  by  Henry  shortly  after  the  invasion 
laid  emphasis  on  the  total  failure  of  the  Scotch  raid  and  on  the 
fact  that  it  was  a  breach  of  a  truce  which  had  still  four  years  to 
run.     Bain,  Cal.  of  Documents  relating  to  Scotland,  iv.  App.  i.  415. 

2  In  his  letters  to  the  king  he  enlarged  upon  James's  poverty  and 
the  discontent  of^the  people. 


1496]        PERKIN    WARBECK  :    1491-1497  145 

knew  by  experience  how  quickly  a  kingdom  might  be 
won  and  lost.  Great  as  his  power  perhaps  is,  the 
result  of  the  war  is  doubtful."  ^  Neither  of  the 
ambassadors  had  an  easy  task.  In  January  and 
February  Henry  was  levying  troops  for  the  defence 
of  the  border  and  was  preparing  a  fleet  to  send  against 
Scotland.  But  the  Spanish  ambassador  in  Scotland 
played  his  cards  very  cleverly.  In  the  main  he 
furthered  Henry's  interests,  which  the  Spanish 
sovereigns  regarded  for  the  time  as  identical  with 
their  own.-  For  a  time  he  continued  the  old  policy 
of  deluding  James  with  the  hope  of  a  Spanish  bride. 
Henry  felt  some  distrust  of  Ayala,^  but  was  reassured 
by  his  falling  in  with  the  proposal  that  his  daughter 
Margaret  should  be  substituted  for  a  Spanish  princess. 
The  idea  of  this  marriage,  which  ultimately  led  to  the 
union  of  the  crowns,  first  appears  in  the  diplomatic 
correspondence  of  June  1495,  and  it  was  renewed 
before  and  after  the  border  raid.^  Don  Pedro  had 
so  far  succeeded  that  a  personal  meeting  between 
Henry  and  James  was  discussed.  The  offers  made 
on  behalf  of  James  by  the  Earl  of  Angus  and  Lord 
Hume,  however,  did  not  satisfy  Henry,  and  in  June 
1497  his  patience  gave  way.  and  Lord  Daubeney  was 
placed  in  command  of  an  army  and  ordered  to  invade 
Scotland.  But  at  this  moment  events  in  Eng- 
land saved  James,  and  Daubeney  had  to  be  recalled. 

In    order   to    obtain   money    for   the    invasion    of 
Scotland  without  delay,  the  king  had  called  together 

1  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  i.  p.  140.  -  Ibid.,  i.  pp.  115,  116. 

'  Ayala  had  £idopted  Charles  of  France's  ingenious  plan,  and  was 
secretly  negotiating  for  Warbecks  surrender  to  Spain.  Ibid.,  pp. 
91,  97,  105,  112,  124,  135.  In  Oct.  1496  Perkin  had  been  writing 
to  try  and  gain  support  in  Spain.     Ibid.,  p.  130;  Arch.,  xxvii.  182. 

*  Rymer,  xii.  529-531,  538,  540,  572,  636;  Bain,  Calendar,  No.  1622. 

K 


146  HENRY    VII  [1496 

a  Great  Council  instead  of  summoning  Parliament. 
This  Council,  which  included  besides  the  lords,  judges 
and  law  officers,  both  burgesses  and  merchants — 
"the  head  wisemen  of  every  city  and  good  town  of 
this  our  land  " — from  all  parts  of  England,  met  on 
24th  October  at  Westminster,^  and  voted  the  king 
£120,000  for  a  war  against  Scotland.  This  expedient 
of  a  Council,  which  was  born  of  haste,  not  policy, 
brought  about  a  rather  curious  situation.  The  grant 
by  Council  did  not  legally  warrant  the  collection  of 
taxes,  but  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  a  kind  of 
guarantee  on  the  strength  of  which  the  king  might 
borrow  money  which  would  be  repaid  when  Parliament 
met.  The  Council  broke  up  on  the  5th  of  November, 
and  the  king  at  once  took  steps  to  obtain  the  money. 
On  the  1st  of  December  a  number  of  privy  seals  were 
issued,  addressed  to  individual  rich  men,  asking  them 
for  a  loan  for  the  invasion  of  Scotland.  All  the  privy 
seals  were  issued  in  the  same  form,  beginning  with  the 
announcement  that  "  for  the  revenging  of  the  great 
cruelty  and  dishonour  that  the  King  of  Scots  hath 
done  unto  us,  our  realm  and  subjects  of  the  same  "... 
''two  armies  royall  "  were  being  prepared  "by  sea 
and  land,"  and  ending,  "  And  because  as  we  hear  ye 
be  a  man  of  good  substance,  we  desire  and  pray  you 

to  make  loan  unto  us  of  the  sum  of  £ ,  whereof  ye 

shall  be  undoubtedly  and  assuredly  repaid."  ^  Like 
the  unpopular  forced  loans  of  Richard  III.,  the  loan 
was  collected  by  commissioners  appointed  for  the 
purpose.  3     From  the  city  of  London  he  had  already 

1  City  Chron.,p.  211. 

=*  Cotton  MS.,  Titus  B,  v.  fol.  145,  printed  Bacon,  Henry  VII.,  ed. 
Spedding,  p.  174. 

3  In  addition  individual  members  of  the  Council  lent  large  sums,  and 
suggested  that  the  king  should  raise  £40,000  more  by  way  of  a  loan. 


1497]        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497         147 

asked  for  a  loan  of  £10,000  and  obtained  £4000.  The 
whole  sum  raised  by  way  of  loan  amounted  to 
£57,388,  10s.  2d.^  With  the  money  thus  obtained 
Henry  pushed  on  his  preparations  for  war,  but  a 
Parliamentary  grant  was  needed  for  the  repayment 
of  the  loan.  Parliament  met  on  16th  January  1496-7. 
Proceedings  began  by  a  speech  from  Morton  about 
the  dangers  that  menaced  the  kingdom,  illustrated 
after  the  prevailing  fashion  by  elaborate  parallels 
from  the  history  of  Rome.  A  very  large  grant  was 
made,  two  fifteenths  and  tenths  payable  in  May  and 
November,  and  a  subsidy  in  addition  equal  to  two 
fifteenths  and  tenths.  From  these  heavy  imposts 
only  those  who  possessed  less  than  twenty  shillings' 
rent  from  land  or  twenty  marks'  worth  of  personal 
property  were  exempted.-  A  large  grant  was  also 
obtained  from  Convocation. 

In  ]March  Parliament  was  dissolved,  but  Henry 
was  fated  "  to  fight  for  his  money,"  ^  and  had  to  face 
serious  opposition.  The  attempt  to  collect  the  taxes 
in  Cornwall  produced  a  great  uproar,  the  people, 
"  lamentyng,  yellyng,  and  crying,  maliciously  said 
the  kyng's  counsayle  was  the  cause  of  this  polling 
and  shauing."  Cornwall  was  a  poor  and  barren 
county ;  the  distant  menace  from  Scotland  seemed 
a  slight  pretext  for  the  king's  large  demands.  The 
angry  people  found  leaders  in  Michael  Joseph,  a 
Bodmin  blacksmith,  "  a  notable  talking  fellow  and  no 
less  desirous  to  be  talked  of,"  and  a  lawyer  named 
Thomas  Flammock,  who  encouraged  the  rioters  by 
telling  them  the  law  was  on  their  side,  and  that  the 

1  Excerpta  Hist.,  pp.  110-113. 

2  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  513-519  ;   Stat.,  ii.  642-647  ;   City  Chron.,  p.  212. 
'  Bacon,  Henry  VII.,  p.  175. 


148  HENRY    VII  [1497 

king  was  being  led  astray  by  e\-il  counsellors,  who 
would  destroy  both  him  and  the  country.  Arch- 
bishop Morton  and  Sir  Reginald  Bray,  "  the  king's 
screens  in  this  envy-,"  were  the  scapegoats  against 
whom  the  popular  clamour  was  directed.  The 
Cornishmen  armed  themselves  with  bows  and  arrows, 
bills  and  staves,  and  the  host  advanced  eastwards 
through  Devon  into  Somerset.  At  Wells  they  were 
encouraged  by  the  accession  of  James  Touchet,  Lord 
Audley,  whom  a  private  grievance  had  made  disloyal.  ^ 
He  led  them  on  to  Bristol :  the  city  refused  to  open 
its  gates  to  the  rebels,  and  they  continued  their  march 
eastwards  through  Winchester  and  Salisbury.  Kent, 
which  had  played  a  conspicuous  part  in  many  re- 
bellions, was  their  objective,  but  they  were  disap- 
pointed to  find  that  the  county  did  not  rise  at  their 
approach.  The  men  of  Kent  had  proved  their  loyalty 
to  Henry  recently  on  Perkin's  attempted  invasion, 
and  the  Cornishmen  found  ''  the  freest  people  of  Eng- 
land "  assembled  under  the  Earl  of  Kent  and  other 
nobles  to  resist  them.  As  usual,  the  first  check  led  to 
many  desertions  from  the  rebel  host,  but  the  bulk  of 
the  insurgents,  a  body  about  15,000  strong,  encamped 
at  Farnham  near  Guildford  on  12th  of  June.  So  far 
the  king  had  not  moved ;  an  undisciplined  rout  of 
peasants  armed  only  with  rude  weapons,  and  ap- 
parently not  stiffened  by  the  accession  of  discontented 
Yorkists  or  other  gentry,  had  marched  all  through 
the  southern  counties,  and  their  camp  now  threatened 
the  capital  itself. 

Henry's  inacti\aty  seems  strange.  Bacon,  following 
Hall  and  Vergil,  explains  it  as  due  to  deep  design  on 
the  king's  part,  the  rebels  being  allowed  to  advance 

1  Rep.  of  Deputy  Keeper,  xxxvii.  App.  iii.  723. 


i 


1497]        PERKIN    WARBECK  :    1491-1497  149 

in  order  to  draw  them  far  from  their  base  and  support. 
Bacon  also  suggests  that  the  king's  inaction  was  due 
to  the  fact  that  he  was  ""  attempered  by  fears  and 
less  in  love  with  dangers  by  the  continued  fruition  of 
a  crown."  The  obvious  explanation  is  probably  the 
true  one— the  king  did  not  move  before  because  he 
could  not.  The  rebellion  took  him  completely  by 
surprise,  all  his  attention  had  been  directed  to  the 
preparations  for  an  invasion  of  Scotland.  Since 
February  troops  had  been  mustering,  and  large  sums 
of  money  had  been  sent  to  York,  Durham,  Newcastle, 
and  Berwick.^  The  rising  of  the  Cornishmen  came 
like  a  bolt  from  the  blue.  Daubeney  was  recalled 
and  ordered  to  lead  his  men  southwards  against  the 
rebels,  while  the  defence  of  the  borders  was  entrusted 
to  the  muster  of  the  northern  counties  under  the 
command  of  the  Earl  of  Surrey.  Henry  was  faced 
with  a  very  grave  situation — "  a  dangerous  triplicity 
to  a  monarchy,  to  have  the  arms  of  a  foreigner,  the 
discontents  of  subjects,  and  the  title  of  a  pretender 
to  meet."  - 

The  city  of  London  was  at  first  panic-stricken  at 
the  imminent  danger,  but  Daubeney's  return  brought 
confidence.  On  Tuesday,  13th  June,  he,  with  eight 
to  ten  thousand  men,  marched  out  to  Hounslow  Heath 
and  met  some  of  the  rebels  in  a  skirmish  near  Guild- 
ford. On  the  same  day  the  king  left  Woodstock  and 
advanced  towards  the  capital,  reaching  Kingston 
on  the  16th.  On  Thursday,  loth  June.  Daubeney 
had  advanced  to  St.  George's-in-the-Fields  and  there 
received  messages  from  some  of  the  rebels,  offering 
to  betray  their  leaders  in  return  for  a  pardon.     On 

1  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  37G  ;  Excerpta  Hiet.,  110,  111.  See 
Rymer,  Feed.,  xii.  647.  -  Bacon,  Henry  VII.,  p.  178. 


150  HENRY    VII  [1497 

Friday  he  joined  forces  with  the  king  and  returned 
to  St.  George's,  Henry  going  to  Lambeth.  The 
Cornishmen  reached  Blackheath  the  same  day  and 
encamped  there,  but  between  them  and  the  capital 
lay  a  force  of  25,000  men.  Friday  night  they  spent 
in  "  greate  agony  and  variaunce,"  some  being  dis- 
posed to  submit  themselves  to  the  king's  mercy,  "  but 
the  Smyth  was  of  the  contrary  mjTide."  Henry  also 
passed  the  night  "  in  the  ffeilde,  abrewyng  and 
comfortyng  of  his  people."  ^  At  six  o'clock  on  the 
following  morning  (Saturday,  17th  June),  a  combined 
attack  upon  flank  and  rear  of  the  rebels  was  led  by 
Sir  Humphrey  Stanley  and  the  Earl  of  Oxford,  while 
Lord  Daubeney  engaged  the  main  body.  The  rebels 
made  a  desperate  resistance,  but  finding  themselves 
surrounded  at  last  surrendered.  According  to  Polydor 
Vergil  and  Hall  2000  of  them  were  slain.-  The  loss 
on  the  king's  side  was  certainly  slight,  most  of  those 
who  fell  being  slain  by  the  yard-long  arrows  of  the 
Cornishmen.  Henry,  who  commanded  the  rear-guard, 
was  never  engaged.  The  king  rode  into  London  after 
the  battle,  being  received  at  London  Bridge  b}'  the 
mayor  and  aldermen.  After  returnmg  thanks  at  St. 
Paul's  for  his  victory,  he  went  to  his  lodging  in  the 
Tower.  On  the  following  Monday  the  rebel  leaders, 
Audley,  Flammock,  and  Joseph,  were  examined  before 
Henry  and  the  council  in  the  Tower,  and  arraigned 
and  condemned  at  Westminster  a  week  later.  The 
next  day,  Tuesday,  June  27th,  Joseph  and  Flammock 
were  drawn  through  the  city  and  hanged  at  Tyburn, 

1  City  Chron.,  p.  214. 

*  For  the  whole  rebellion,  see  Pol.  Verg.,  pp.  699-602 ;  Hall,  pp. 
476-80  ;  City  Chron.,  pp.  213-15 ;  Rot.  Pari,  vi.  544-5.  Hall  includes 
in  his  accovint  (p.  477)  incidents  which  happened  in  the  rising  of  the 
following  year. 


14971        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497         151 

the  smith  showing  high  courage  and  hoping  "  for  a 
name  perpetual  and  a  fame  permanent  and  immortal."  ^ 
On  Wednesday  Lord  Audley  was  led  from  Newgate 
through  the  streets,  wearing  a  torn  paper  coat  adorned 
with  the  arms  of  his  house  reversed,  to  Tower  Hill, 
where  he  was  beheaded.  The  heads  of  the  three 
leaders  were  set  up  on  London  Bridge  and  their 
quarters  on  the  city  gates.  But  this  was  the  only 
vengeance  that  Henry  took ;  the  rest  of  the  rebels  he 
spared."  According  to  Bacon,  the  king's  clemency  on 
this  occasion,  as  distinguished  from  the  severity  with 
which  Perkin's  attempt  in  Kent  was  punished,  showed 
his  discrimination  "  between  people  that  did  rebel 
upon  wantonness  and  them  that  did  rebel  upon 
want."  ^  The  danger  thus  overcome  is  reflected  in 
the  letters  of  the  Venetian  envoy  with  some  extra- 
ordinary comments.  According  to  him  an  army  of 
20,000  men  was  said  to  have  taken  up  arms  in  the 
north  and  marched  on  London  "  because  a  tax  had 
been  laid  on  the  priests  contrary  to  custom."  The 
king  was  reported  to  have  collected  all  his  property 
"  in  a  tower  near  the  coast  "  that  he  might  escape  if 
necessary.^ 

Meanwhile  there  had  been  a  change  in  the  posi- 
tion in  Scotland.  Ayala,  who  since  October  1496 
had  been  negotiating  to  obtain  the  surrender  of 
Perkin  Warbeck  to  Spain,  worked  upon  the  pre- 
tender by  allusions  to  an  approaching  and  inevit- 
able reconciliation  between  the  Kings  of  England 
and  Scotland,  and  suggested  that  he  should  sail  to 

1  Hall,  p.  479. 

^  City  Chron.,  p.  216.  Many  of  them  bought  their  ransom  from 
their  captors  at  sums  varying  from  12d.  upwards. 

^  Bacon,  op.  cit.,  p.  183.  *  Brown,  Ven.  Cal.,  No.  743. 


152  HENRY    VII  [1497 

Ireland,  whence  he  could  be  taken  by  Spanish  fishing- 
boats  to  safe  refuge  in  Spain.  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 
set  great  hopes  on  this  scheme,  and  strict  precautions 
were  taken  to  prevent  Henry  from  hearing  about  it, 
de  Puebla,  then  ambassador  in  London,  being  kept  in 
the  dark.  Ayala  probably  succeeded  in  winning  over 
the  adventurer,  but  James  ^^as  not  disposed  to 
surrender  his  protege.  ^  The  Cornish  rising  raised 
hopes  that  Warbeck  would  find  in  England  the 
support  he  had  hitherto  looked  for  there  in  vain. 
James  proposed  to  co-operate  with  the  rebels  by 
invading  England  on  the  north  while  Perkin  was 
trying  his  fortune  in  Cornwall.^  Early  in  July,  there- 
fore, Warbeck  sailed  from  Scotland,  with  his  wife  and 
child,  in  a  ship  victualled  and  provided  by  James,^ 
escorted  by  two  other  vessels,  one  of  them  being  a 
Breton  merchant  ship,  which  was  perhaps  impressed 
by  James  for  this  service. 

There  was  some  delay  before  James  carried  out 
his  part  of  the  plan.  Shortly  after  Perkin  sailed 
James  received  an  embassy  from  Henry,  who  after 
the  Cornish  rebellion  gave  up  the  idea  of  a  war  of  re- 
venge in  Scotland,  as  it  meant  further  taxation.  On 
4th  July,  Fox,  Bishop  of  Durham,  had  been  sent  north 

1  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  pp.  61,  85,  91,  97,  105,  115-20,  124,  135  ; 
Busch,  op.  cit.,  p.  346,  quoting  Zurita,  v.  1036,  110a. 

^  On  tills  point  there  has  been  some  discussion,  but  the  evidence 
appears  to  support  the  view  that  James  did  not  abandon  his  sup- 
port of  Perkin  when  he  left  Scotland.  Gairdner,  L.  and  P.  Hen. 
VII.,  ii.  pref.  Ivii.  pp.  185-7;  Busch,  p.  347. 

^  Ibid.,  ii.  331-3.  Some  of  the  details  of  the  equipment  have 
been  preserved.  We  read  of  the  pvu"chase  of  3  J  ells  of  "  rowane 
tawnee  to  ye  Duches  of  York  to  be  her  ane  seegown,"  L.  and  P. 
Hen.  VII.,  ii.  331-4.  See  also  Ellis,  i.  (i.)  p.  32.  Biisch  (p.  346) 
makes  it  clear  that  Perkin  had  not  made  another  expedition 
between  September  1496  and  July  1497. 


1497]        PERKIN    WARBECK  :    1491-1497  1.53 

to  try  and  obtain  the  surrender  of  Perkin  and  per- 
suade James  to  send  an  embassy  into  England  to  ask 
for  peace.  "  to  save  the  dignity  of  the  stronger  power." 
The  ambassador  was  instructed  to  make  every 
possible  effort  to  arrange  a  peace.  Even  the  demand 
for  Perkin's  surrender  was  to  be  dropped  if  it  stood 
in  the  way  of  a  settlement.^  James  of  Scotland,  how- 
ever, was  not  inclined  to  treat.  His  unopposed  and 
unpunished  raid  encouraged  him.  Henry,  with  his 
kingdom  ablaze  with  revolt,  seemed  powerless,  and 
the  opportunity  too  good  to  lose.  In  August,  therefore, 
James  again  crossed  the  border,  and.  after  wasting 
and  burning  the  country  side,  besieged  the  castle  of 
Xorham-on-Tweed.-  Henry,  however,  while  making 
overtures  for  peace,  had  not  abandoned  his  prepara- 
tions for  war.  In  July  all  the  Scotch  were  ordered 
to  leave  England,  and  on  July  1st,  £12,000  had  been 
sent  northwards  for  the  expenses  of  the  war.  Norham, 
strongly  fortified  and  garrisoned  by  the  Bishop  of 
Durham,  '"  a  wise  man  and  one  that  could  see  through 
the  present  to  the  future,"  made  a  stout  resistance  to 
the  Scotch  assault.  The  Earl  of  Surrey  advanced  from 
Yorkshire  with  20,000  men,  and  a  fleet  put  to  sea  under 
Lord  Willoughby  de  Broke.  At  the  news  of  Surrey's 
advance  James  raised  the  siege  of  Norham  and  re- 
treated over  the  border,  with  Surrey  in  pursuit.  The 
English  leader  destroyed  several  border  forts  and 
took  the  castle  of  Ayton.  The  Scotch  army,  which 
lay  a  mile  off,  made  no  attempt  to  save  the  castle, 
but  James  offered  to  decide  the  whole  question  by 
single  combat  with  Surrey,  the  castle  of  Ber\vick  to 
be  the  victor's  prize.     The  earl  refused  this  quixotic 

1  Rymer,  xii.  676  ;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  104-111 ;  Bain,  Calendar, 
iv.  1635.  »  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  333. 


154  HENRY    VII  [1497 

offer,  and  thanking  him  "  harteley  of  the  honoure  that 
he  offered  him  ...  to  admit  so  poore  an  earle  to 
fight  with  him  body  to  body,"  but  explaining  that 
Berwick  was  the  king's  and  not  his  to  pledge  at  his 
will,  prepared  for  battle.  James,  "  not  performyng 
his  great  crakes  and  boastes."  retreated  by  night. 
Difficulty  in  obtaining  supplies  forced  Surrey  to  with- 
draw his  troops  from  that  "  tempestious,  unfertile, 
and  barayne  region,"  where  they  had  been  "  dayly 
and  nightly  vexed  with  continual  wynde  and  un- 
measurable  reyne."  ^ 

James's  great  scheme  had  fallen  to  the  ground  and 
nothing  had  been  heard  of  Perkin.  It  was  a  favour- 
able moment  for  the  renewal  of  negotiations,  and 
Ayala  fostered  the  peaceful  tendencies  by  every  means 
in  his  power.  Henry,  who  was  also  strongly  urged  to 
peace  by  Spain,  and  who  "  did  not  love  the  barren 
wars  in  Scotland  though  he  made  his  profit  of  the 
noise  of  them,"  sent  a  plenipotentiary.  The  chief 
difficulty  which  had  wrecked  the  earlier  negotiations, 
James's  reluctance  to  surrender  Perkin  at  the  King 
of  England's  bidding,  had  been  removed  by  the 
adventurer's  departure  from  Scotland.  Other  points 
in  dispute,  such  as  the  compensation  for  losses  inflicted 
on  both  sides,  were  waived,  and  on  30th  September 
a  seven  years'  treaty  was  signed  at  Ayton.-  Ulti- 
mately, after  negotiations  skilfully  conducted  by 
Ayala  as  mediator,^'  the  term  of  peace  was  prolonged 
to  the  lifetimes  of  the  two  sovereigns.'*  It  was 
publicly  proclaimed  in  London  on  the  6th  December.^ 

1  Pol.  Verg.,  pp.  602-3  ;  Hall,  pp.  480-2  ;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII., 
ii.  33^-4. 

*  See  Rymer,  xii.  673-8  ;   Bain,  Calendar,  iv.  No.  1636. 

8  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  p.  146.  *  Rymer,  xii.  678-80. 

6  City  Chron.,  p.  222. 


1497]        PERKIX    WARBECK:    1491-1497  155 

The  importance  of  this  arrangement  is  happily 
crystalHsed  by  Bacon.  "  Ayala's  embassy,"  he  says, 
"  set  the  truce  between  England  and  Scotland,  the 
truce  drew  on  the  peace,  the  peace  the  marriage,  and 
the  marriage  the  union  of  the  kingdoms."  ^ 

Warbeck  himself  wrecked  his  last  chance  of  success 
by  abandoning  James's  plan  of  sailing  direct  to 
Cornwall  and  landing  there.  In  spite  of  the  failure 
of  the  rising,  and  in  spite  of,  or  perhaps  because  of, 
the  king's  clemency,  disaffection  was  rife  in  Cornwall. 
"The  king's  lenity  had  rather  emboldened  than 
reclaimed  them,  insomuch  as  they  stuck  not  to  say 
to  their  neighbours  and  countrymen  that  the  king 
did  well  to  pardon  them,  for  that  he  knew  he  should 
leave  few  suljjects  in  England  if  he  had  hanged  all 
that  were  of  their  mind.''  -  On  the  face  of  it  James's 
scheme  was  a  possible  if  not  a  likely  one — invasions 
on  the  north  and  south  to  combine  with  treachery 
within.  The  adventurer,  however,  abandoned  this 
plan  and  sailed  away  to  Ireland,  allured  by  the  promise 
of  help  given  to  him  by  Sir  James  Ormond,  then  in 
arms  against  Henry. ^  On  25th  July  he  landed  in 
Cork,  where  he  was  well  received  by  one  of  his  earliest 
supporters,  John  Walter.  He  stayed  there  some 
time,  but  found  that  there  was  little  chance  of  winning 
further  support.  Fate  seemed  to  be  fighting  against 
the  adventurer.  Sir  James  Ormond  had  been  killed 
on  the  17th  of  July,  and  his  former  powerful  friends 
held  aloof.  The  temper  of  Ireland  had  completely 
changed.  Kildare  had  just  been  re-appointed  Lord 
Deputy,  and  was  bent  on  proving  his  loyalty.  Des- 
mond  and    the    Munster    chieftains    had  been   par- 

*  Bacon,  op.  cit.,  p.  185.  "  Ibid.,  p.  189. 

'  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  pref.  xlix. 


156  HENRY    VII  [1497 

doned,  ^  the  south  of  Ireland  was  submissive  and  loyal 
to  the  Tudor.  The  faithful  city  of  Waterford  at  once 
sent  off  news  to  Henry  that  Perkin  had  re-appeared 
in  Cork,  and  Kildare  and  Desmond  made  an  attempt 
to  capture  him,  but  Walter  arranged  his  escape  by 
sea  to  Kinsale.  There  the  adventurer  found  and 
rejected  a  last  chance  of  escape.  In  Kinsale  harbour 
there  were  three  Spanish  ships,  either  those  provided 
by  Ayala  to  convey  the  fugitive  to  Spain  or  merchant 
ships  hired  by  Walter.  But  with  characteristic  hope- 
fulness he  decided  to  try  his  fortune  once  more  in 
England,  and,  encouraged  by  letters  from  the  Cornish 
malcontents,  determined  to  land  in  Cornwall.  He  put 
to  sea  at  the  end  of  August  or  the  beginning  of  Septem- 
ber, but  the  ship  in  which  he  sailed  was  overtaken 
by  an  English  vessel  and  boarded,  and  the  surrender 
of  the  pretender  was  demanded.  The  offer  of  a  reward 
of  1000  marks,  however,  did  not  induce  the  captain 
to  betray  the  fugitive,  who  lay  in  the  hold  of  the  ship 
hidden  in  a  cask  of  wine.-  He  landed  at  Whitsand 
Bay  near  the  Land's  End  with  about  120  men. 

This  little  company  soon  grew  into  thousands ; 
Cornwall  was  seething  with  disaffection,  and  Perkin 
proclaimed  himself  as  King  Richard  IV.,  and  ad- 
vanced to  Bodmin  at  the  head  of  3000  men.  Thence 
he  marched  to  Exeter  and  appeared  before  the  city 
on  September  7th.  Though  without  artillery  he  made 
a  bold  attempt  to  storm  the  city,  setting  fire  to  the 
gates,  but  was  beaten  off  with  the  loss  of  200  men, 
and  marched  to  Taunton,  which  he  reached  on  Sep- 
tember 20th.     Here  the  adventurer's  courage  began 

»  Ware,  Annalea,  p.  59  (ed.  1658). 

'  Halliwell,  Letters,  i.  174-180  ;  Smith,  Waterford,  p.  135  ;  Carew 
Papers,  p.  468  ;    Pol.  Verg.,  p.  604  ;    Hall,  p.  483. 


1497]        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497  157 

to  fail.  "  He  put  small  trust  and  lesse  confidence  in 
the  remnant  of  his  army  .  .  .  because  the  mooste  part 
of  his  souldioures  wer  harnessed  on  the  right  arme 
and  naked  all  the  body  and  neuer  exercised  in 
warre  nor  marciall  feates,  but  only  with  the  spade  and 
shovell."  ^  Moreover  the  royal  army  was  advancing 
to  meet  him  under  the  command  of  Lord  Daubeney, 
Lord  Broke,  and  Sir  Rhys  ap  Thomas,  Henry,  with 
his  usual  caution,  keeping  part  of  his  troops  in  reserve 
under  his  own  command.  But  these  precautions 
soon  appeared  to  be  needless.  At  the  rumoured 
approach  of  the  royal  forces  Warbeck's  courage  failed, 
and  at  midnight  on  21st  September  he  stole  secretly 
away  with  sixty  mounted  men,  who  had  been  his 
captains,  leaving  his  host  leaderless  to  face  the  king. 

Perkin  with  three  of  his  followers  reached  sanctuary 
at  Beaulieu,  the  others  were  probably  captured.  The 
rebels  at  Taunton,  finding  themselves  deserted,  threw 
down  their  arms  at  the  king's  approach  and  sub- 
mitted themselves  to  his  mercy,  "  holdyng  up  their 
handes  in  askyng  mercy,  offering  and  promising  him 
faythe,  loyaltie,  and  obeysaunce."  The  ringleaders 
only  were  taken,  the  rest  were  allowed  to  disperse, 
being  later  punished  by  the  infliction  of  heavy  fines. 
Meanwhile  Perkin,  after  a  week  in  sanctuary,  saw 
that  his  last  chance  had  gone,  and  being  brought  to 
the  "  verie  poynte  and  prycke  of  extremytie,"  and 
being  assured  of  pardon,  surrendered  to  the  royal 
troops,  who  were  surrounding  the  sanctuary.  He  was 
brought  before  the  king  at  Taunton  on  5th  October 
and  made  a  full  confession. ^      Henry  took  him  to 

1  Hall,  Chronicle,  p.  484. 

*  Pol.  Verg.,  pp.  604-5';  City  Chron.,  pp.  217-21 ;  Hall,  pp.  483-6  ; 
Excerpta  Hist.,[pi).  113,  114;   Halliwell,  Le«ers,  i.  175-8. 


158  HENRY    VII  [1497 

Exeter,  and  there  Lady  Katherine  Gordon,  who  had 
been  found  by  the  royal  troops  at  St.  Michael's 
Mount  in  Cornwall,  was  brought  in  to  the  king. 
Perkin  was  forced  to  repeat  before  her  the  whole  story 
of  his  imposture,  and  she  was  then  honourably  escorted 
to  Sheen,  where  she  became  a  member  of  the  queen's 
household. 

From  Exeter  Perkin  wrote  a  sad  letter  to  his 
mother.^  He  explained  that  he  had  submitted  him- 
self to  the  king  and  begged  for  a  pardon,  laying  stress 
on  the  fact  that  he  was  not  by  birth  Henry's  subject. 
He  had  not  as  yet  received  a  favourable  reply,  "  nor 
had  any  hope  of  receiving  one,  wherefore  his  hearte  was 
very  so^ro\^'ful."  While  at  ExeterHenry  appointed  com- 
missioners to  inflict  fines  upon  Warbeck's  adherents, 
and  they  proceeded,  we  are  told,  with  such  severity  as 
"  to  obscure  the  king's  mercy  in  sparing  of  blood 
with  the  bleeding  of  so  much  treasure."  A  very 
searching  procedure  seems  to  have  been  adopted,  and 
as  late  as  1500  arrears  of  fines  were  being  collected. 
Once  again  the  king  made  rebellion  profitable.- 

After  settling  the  disturbed  west,  the  king  turned 
towards  London,  taking  Perkin  in  his  train,  "  not 
withoute  a  great  concourse  of  people  metynge  hym 
oute  of  every  quarter  to  see  this  Perkyn,  as  he  was  a 
Monstre,  because  he.  beinge  an  alien  of  no  abilitee  by 
his  poore  parents  .  .  .  durst  once  invade  so  noble  a 
realme."  The  king  reached  Westminster  on  27th  of 
November,  and  Perkin  was  obliged  to  repeat  his  con- 
fession before  the  mayor  and  aldermen.  This  con- 
fession, w^hich  is  now  regarded  as  practically  true  in 

1  Printed  by  Gairdner,  Perkin  Warbeck:  pp.  329-30. 
*  Rymer,  xii.  696-8  ;   L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  335-7  ;   Pol.  Verg., 
p.  606. 


1497]        PERKIN    WARBECK:    1491-1497  159 

all  its  details,^  gives  a  full  account  of  the  pretender's 
birth  and  early  adventures.  His  proceedings  after  he 
reached  Ireland,  and  his  adventures  in  Flanders  and 
Scotland,  are  dismissed  in  a  few  words.  Warbeck's 
connection  with  the  Duchess  of  Burgundy  is  utterly 
ignored ;  the  explanation  probably  is  that  the  object 
of  the  confession  was  to  make  public  details  of  the 
pretender's  birth  liitherto  unknown  to  the  })eople. 
The  king's  object  was  to  discredit  him  once  and  for 
all  as  a  Yorkist  prince,  and  there  was  no  special  object 
in  loading  the  confession  with  the  Duchess's  intrigues  ^ 
and  Perkin's  well-known  later  adventures.  On  the 
following  day  \Yarbeck  was  conveyed  on  horseback 
thi'ough  London,  being  greeted  with  "  many  a  curse 
and  wonderyng  inowth,"  and  was  then  brought  back 
to  Westminster,  where  he  was  given  a  lodging.^  He 
remained  there  for  some  months,  being  treated  with 
remarkable  lenience  and  allowed  a  certain  amount  of 
liberty.  His  vn.le  remained  under  the  queen's  protec- 
tion in  safety  and  honour  many  years  ;  "  the  name 
of  the  White  Rose,  which  had  been  given  to  her 
husband's  false  title,  was  continued  in  common  speech 
to  her  true  beauty."  "^  Henry's  treatment  of  her  is 
an  instance  of  his  generosity  to  those  who  opposed 
him. 

Perkin  Warbeck's  career,  however,  was  over ;  Henry 
had  at  last  respite  from  the  canker  w  hich  had  poisoned 
so  many  years  of  his  reign.  Though  he  lived  to  cause 
the  king  anxiety  once  more,  he  was  never  again  the 
centre  of  his  diplomacy,  or  the  chief  danger  in  his 

*  See  Busch,  p.  335  ;   also  Appendix  ii.,  p.  419,  below. 

-  The  relations  between  England  and  Burgundy  had  much  im- 
proved. ^  City  Chron.,  p.  221. 

*  Beicon,  p.  193.     She  married  twice  after  Perkin's  death. 


160  HENRY    VII  [1497 

pain.  In  Bacon's  vivid  phrase,  Henry  was  now 
"  cured  of  those  privy  stitches  which  he  had  long  had 
about  his  heart."  The  year  that  had  seen  the  Scotch 
ravaging  the  borders,  the  Cornishmen  marching  on 
London,  and  the  pretender  raising  his  standard  in  the 
West,  ended  in  the  king's  triumph  and  the  defeat  of 
an  impostor  whose  claims  had  been  backed  by  traitors 
at  home  and  enemies  abroad. 


CHAPTER    V 

COMMERCE  AND   INDUSTRY 

One  of  Bacon's  epigrammatic  sentences  brings  out 
the  aim  which  gave  unity  and  coherence  to  the  com- 
mercial and  industrial  policy  of  Henry  VII.  "  He 
bowed  the  ancient  policy  of  this  realm  from  consi- 
deration of  plenty  to  consideration  of  power."  The 
policy  Henry  adopted  had  been  tried  before  ten- 
tatively and  experimentally  ;  he  gave  it  permanence 
and  made  it  a  success.  An  increasingly  conscious 
subordination  of  each  legislative  act  to  the  general 
scheme  replaced  empirical  legislation.  His  reign  saw 
the  inauguration  of  the  policy  known  in  later  years  as 
the  Mercantile  System,  which  aimed  at  the  regulation 
of  commerce  and  industry  with  a  view  to  increasing 
the  national  power.  The  system  not  only  harmonised 
admirably  with  the  general  character  of  the  king's 
government,  but  it  gained  inspiration  and  success 
from  the  approval  of  his  people.  Henry's  standpoint 
faithfully  represented  the  view  of  the  best  Englishmen 
of  the  day.  For  a  hundred  years  England  had  been 
growing  more  and  more  into  a  commercial  nation. 
Foreign  trade  had  become  the  centre  of  ambitious 
hopes  that  a  generation  or  two  earlier  would  have 
spent  themselves  on  schemes  of  conquest.  England 
was  beginning  to  become  conscious  of  her  commercial 
destiny,  and  a  spirit  of  keen  international  rivalry  gave 
flavour  to  the  trade  policy  of  her  kings.     The  king 

161  L 


162  HENRY     VII  [1485-1509 

who  guided  the  nation's  destinies  at  this  critical 
moment  was  a  man  who,  innately  shrewd,  far-sighted, 
and  a  lover  of  peace,  found  a  congenial  sphere  for 
the  exercise  of  his  talents  in  these  bloodless  victories 
of  trade. 

The  guiding  principles  of  the  Mercantile  System 
were  the  accumulation  of  treasure,  the  encouragement 
of  native  shipping,  the  maintenance  of  an  adequate 
fooH^siTppry,  and*  the  provision  of  emplo^Tuent  for 
the  support  of  an  effective  population.  Though  it 
would  be  an  exaggeration  to  claim  that  Henrj^  grasped 
the  system  as  a  logical  conception — and,  indeed,  its 
full  development  belongs  to  a  later  era — the  tenacity 
w^ith  which  he  kept  its  main  features  before  him,  at 
a  time  when  economic  generalisations  were  unknown, 
is  a  proof  of  extraordinary  ability.  In  the  early  part 
of  the  reign  we  find  exceptions,  waverings,  apparent 
retrogressions,  the  guiding  idea  obscured  by  the 
necessities  of  an  uneasy  throne,  but  before  Henry 
died  the  Mercantile  System  w^as  firmly  rooted  Jn 
England,  where  it  flourished  until  the  dawn  of  free 
trade.  ^^ As  the  pioneer  of  the  commercial  policy 
under  which  England  w^on  and  kept  her  colonial 
empire,  Henry  VII.  appears  in  one  of  his  most  interest- 
ing and  significant  aspects. 

The  king's  position,  above  the  arena  of  commercial 
competition,  gave  him  a  general  view  of  the  whole 
field  of  trade  and  industry.  A  speech  supplied  by 
Bacon  for  Morton,  warning  Parliament  to  manage 
industry  and  foreign  trade  so  that  "  the  kingdom's 
stock  of  treasure  may  be  sure  to  be  kept  from  being 
diminished,"  touches  on  the  guiding  aim  of  most  six- 
teenth century  statesmen. ^     Henry  did  not  neglect 

'  Bacon,  op.  cit.,  p.  81. 


KING    HKNRV   VII 
From  a  picture  in  tbe  possession  of  the  Society  of  Antiquanes 


i 


!488-i809]      COMMERCE    AND    INDUSTRY      163 

this  point, ^  but  he  had  much  wider  views.  His 
attempts  to  regulate  the  flow  of  the  precious  metals 
were  a  small  part  of  his  plan  and  perhaps  the  least 
successful.  The  way  in  which  he  dealt  with  the 
export  and  import  trade  of  the  kingdom  proves  a 
larger  spirit  and  a  wider  survey.  Much  of  his  legis-/ 
lation  is  designed  in  a  consciously  protective  spirit.' 
He  hoped  to  gain  for  England  a  larger  share  in  the 
commerce  of  Europe,  and  find  the  sinews  of  war 
that  came  from  flourishing  trade ;  to  restrict  alien 
competition  and  provide  profitable  employment 
for  his  subjects.  It  is  this  desire  that  makes  the 
spirit  though  not  the  letter  of  his  legislation  harmonise 
with  the  theories  of  modern  protectionists,  who  look 
back  beyond  free  trade  to  the  era  of  the  Mercantile 
System  inaugurated  by  Henry.  "  England  for  the 
English "  is  a  motto  which  would  have  enlisted 
Henry's  sympathy.- 

The  encouragement  of  English  shipping  has  been 
mentioned  as  one  of  the  essential  features  of  the 
Mercantile  System.  Henry  was  king  of  an  island 
kingdom  with  awakening  ambitions,  and  the  necessity 
of  having  a  large  merchant  fleet  which  in  time  of  war 
could  supplement  the  small  royal  navy  and  in  time 
of  peace  would  give  profitable  employment  to  his 
subjects,  did  not  escape  him.  A  great  effort  was 
necessary.  The  state  of  affairs  when  Henry  came  to 
the  throne  seemed  almost  hopeless.  The  merchant 
fleet,  like  everything  else,  had  decaj^ed,  and  foreign 
ships  carried  the  sea-borne  trade  of  England.     The 

1  See  below,  p.  190. 

*  The  reign  brings  into  relief  the  keen  contrast  between  the 
standpoint  of  the  protectionist  jealous  for  national  prosperity,- 
and  that  of  the  free-trader  looking  forward  to  an  ideal  of  cosmo- 
politan brotherhood. 


164  HENRY    VII  [1486-1500 

-Navigation  Laws,  which  made  a  determined  attempt 
to  secure  the  carrying  trade  for  EngHsh  ships,  are  an 
illustration  of  the  operation  of  the  principle  of  Power 
versus  Plenty.  A  deliberate  sacrifice  of  the  latter 
to  the  former  was  made  early  in  the  reign  by  the 
passing  of  Navigation  Acts  which,  at  all  events  at 
first,  must  have  diminished  the  volume  of  trade.  The 
preamble  of  the  first  Navigation  Act  ^  drew  attention 
in  striking  language  to  the  "  grete  mynyshyng  and 
decaye  that  hath  ben  now  of  late  tyme  of  the  Navie 
within  this  realme  of  England  and  ydelnesse  of  the 
mariners  Avithin  the  same  by  the  whiche  this  noble 
Realme  within  short  processe  of  tyme  withoute 
reformaccion  be  had  therin  shall  not  be  of  habilite 
and  power  to  defend  itself."  The  Act  forbade  the 
importation  of  wine  or  woad  from  Guienne  or  Gascony  \|' 
'except  in  English,  Irish,  or  Welsh  ships,  manned  by 
English,  Irish,  or  Welsh  sailors.  This  Act  was  tem- 
porary only.-  its  experimental  character  being  due  to 
the  king's  appreciation  of  the  fact  that  the  merchant 
fleet  of  England  was  not  yet  large  enough  to  carry 
her  sea-borne  trade.  It  was  not  renewed  until  1490, 
but  in  tlie  interval  Henry  had  succeeded  in  obtaining 
a  share  of  the  carrying  trade  in  Italian  wine.^  By 
1490  restored  peace  and  order  and  the  king's  fostering 
care  had  led  to  such  a  development  of  English  shipping 
that  it  became  feasible  to  pass  a  second  NaAagation  i 
Act.  The  new  law  included  a  very  important  pro-/ 
vision  to  the  effect  that  no  foreign  ship  should  be 
freighted  in  an  English  port  while  an  English  ship 

1   1  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  8. 

*  Stat.,  ii.  502.  Edward  IV.  had  made  a  similar  attempt  to 
restrict  the  carrying  trade  to  English  ships,  but  had  been  forced 
to  abandon  it.     Henry's  effort  was  crowned  with  success. 

»  See  below,  p.  178, 


1486-1509]    COMMERCE    AND    INDUSTRY        165 

remained  unladen.^  Henry's  commercial  relations 
with  Burgundy,  Venice,  and  Spain  were  influenced 
by  the  same  aim  of  encouraging  English  shipping,  and 
his  policy  was  strikingly  successful.  By  the  end  of 
the  reign  the  English  merchant  navy  was  flourishing, 
and  its  energies,  outgrowing  their  former  sphere,  were 
finding  an  outlet  in  voyages  of  discovery  in  search  of 
new  markets. - 

The  two  most  important  branches  of  England's 
trade  with  the  Continent  were  the  export  of  raw 
wool  and  of  manufactured  cloth.  The  former  was 
the  oldest  and  still  the  most  important.  The  state 
of  the  trade  at  Henry's  accession  is  illustrated  by 
the  Cely  Papers,'^  which  reveal  the  insecurity  of  the 
roads  and  of  the  sea,  the  dislocation  of  trade  by 
constant  wars,  and  the  smuggling  of  wool  to  Flanders 
without  going  through  Calais,  the  chief  market  for 
English  wool,  where  the  subsidy  was  collected. 
In  1484  certain  "  banished  Englishmen "  turned 
pirates  were  robbing  Spanish  ships,  and  French, 
Flemish,  and  Danish  pirates  were  roving  the  Channel. 
The  English  merchants  retaliated  by  capturing  a 
ship  or  two  themselves,  whenever  they  got  the 
chance.  Henry's  accession  brought  peace  and  strong 
government,  and  for  a  time  the  wool  and  cloth 
trade  flourished.  Antwerp,  then  the  centre  of  the 
commercial  world,  was  the  mart  for  English  cloth  ; 
Burgundy  was  also  the  chief  buyer  of  English  wool. 
All  through  the  reign,  therefore,  Henry's  relations  with" 
Flanders  remained  the  vital  point  of  his  commercial 

1  4  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  10  ;  Stat.,  ii.  o34r-5. 

*  See  below,  pp.  317-24. 

^  Cely  Papers  (Royal  Hist.  Soc).  Wool  was  brought  from  the 
pastures  by  pack-horses  over  rude  roads  to  one  of  the  Cinque  Porta, 
and  then  shipped  to  Calais,  the  gate  of  trade  with  Flanders. 


166  HENRY    VII  [U85-1609 

policy.^  The  king  had  two  main  objects  in  view — 
to  widen  the  market  for  English  cloth,  and  keep  the 
trade  in  the  hands  of  English  merchants.  Smuggling 
was  diminished  by  an  Act  of  1487,  wliich  handed  over 
to  the  fellowship  of  the  Staple,  the  oldest  organisa- 
tion of  English  merchants,  which  had  become  a 
powerful  corporation  controlling  all  the  details  of  the 
trade,  the  customs  upon  wool  and  leather,  in  return 
for  the  maintenance  by  them  of  the  Calais  defences. - 

Unfortunately  the  peaceful  development  of  the 
wool  and  cloth  trade  was  early  checked  by  dynastic 
complications.  The  personal  hostility  between  Henry 
and  Maximilian,  the  intrigues  of  Perkin  VVarbeck  and 
Suffolk,  Henry's  anxiety  to  marry  jNIargaret,  all  deeply 
affected  the  course  of  the  wool  trade.  In  September 
1493  Henry  took  the  extreme  step  of  forbidding  all 
commercial  intercourse  between  his  subjects  and 
those  of  Maximilian.  All  Flemings  were  ordered  to 
leave  England,  and  the  mart  for  English  cloth  was 
removed  from  Antwerp  to  Calais.  Six  months  later 
Maximilian  retaliated  by  a  decree  forbidding  any 
importation  of  English  cloth,  and  forbidding  English 
merchants  to  trade  in  the  Netherlands. ^  For  three 
years  this  state  of  affairs  continued.  There  is  some 
evidence  to  show  that  the  effect  was  more  severely 
felt  in  the  Netherlands  than  in  England,  o-vsang  to 
the  fact  that  the  want  of  English  wool  starved  the 
Flemish  cloth  manufacture,  while  the  Flemish  market 
was  no  longer  all  important  to  the  English  cloth  trade 

1  The  special  importance  of  the  cloth  trade  may  have  impressed 
itself  on  Henry's  mind  during  his  exile  abroad.  Cunningham, 
Orowth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce. 

»  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  394-7. 

3  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  374  ;  Pol.  Verg.,  p.  592  ;  City  Chron., 
p.  200. 


U86-1509]     COiADIERCE    AND    INDUSTRY        167 

since  Henry's  policy  had  opened  new  markets  for  it 
in  Germany.  1  Henry  has  been  charged  with  de- 
hberately  sacrificing  the  welfare  of  his  subjects  for 
his  own  personal  advantage,  but  in  his  view, 
dynastic  considerations  were  all-important  instead  of 
unimportant  to  his  people.  The  Tudor  dynasty  had 
given  them  peace  and  prosperity,  and  anything  that 
threatened  the  safety  of  the  king's  throne  thi-eatened 
the  safety  of  the  subject's  trade.  Contemporary 
evidence  supports  the  view  that  the  loss  inflicted  upon 
English  trade  was  infinitesimal  compared  with  the 
damage  in  the  Netherlands.  Criticism,  however, 
may  be  justly  directed  to  the  king's  methods  in  the 
matter.  His  attempt  to  forge  a  political  weapon 
from  his  restraint  of  commerce  was  a  signal ,  failure. 
Maximilian  got  on  so  badly  with  his  rebellious  Flemish 
subjects  that  care  for  their  interests  was  not  likely  to 
make  liim  vary  his  policy,  and  there  is  no  evidence 
that  Henry's  action  weighed  with  Maximilian  at  all. 

Much  relief  was  felt  when  a  change  in  the  political 
situation  made  a  renewal  of  friendly  relations  possible. 
The  commercial  provisions  of  the  treaty  between 
Henry  and  Maximilian,  signed  on  February  24, 1495-6, 
provided  for  free  commercial  intercourse  between 
England  and  Burgundy.  The  duties  imposed  upon 
English  and  Flemish  merchants  were  not  to  exceed  the 
rates  customary  during  the  last  fifty  years  ;  piracy  was 
to  be  put  down,  and  the  fisheries  were  to  be  free.'^ 

1  See  below,  p.  173. 

"  Rymer,  xii.  578-591;  Berg.,  Spanish  Col.,  pp.  85,  95,  103; 
Brown,  Venet.  Cal.,  Nos.  684,  690.  The  name  usually  given  to  this 
treaty  is  the  "  Inteicursus  Magnus,"  but  Dr.  Busch  has  pointed  out 
(p.  357)  that  there  is  no  contemporary  evidence  for  this  name,  which 
appears  first  in  Bacon's  Life  of  Henry  VII.  (p.  173),  from  which  it 
has  been  copied  by  later  writers. 


168  HENRY    VII  [1485-1609 

The  treaty  was  not,  as  might  have  been  expected, 
generally  popular  in  England.  In  London  there  was 
no  enthusiasm  over  it ;  jealousy  of  the  Flemish  traders 
was  deep  rooted,  and  the  Mayor  was  reluctant  to 
affix  the  seal  of  the  city.^  Only  a  few  months, 
however,  had  gone  by  after  this  settlement  before 
fresh  difficulties  arose.  A  new  duty  was  imposed  on 
English  cloth  which  Henry  complained  of  as  contrary 
to  the  treaty.  Retaliation  followed  immediately. 
The  English  mart  was  again  removed  to  Calais,  and 
this  pressure  led  to  the  withdrawal  of  the  new  duty 
in  July  1497.  The  English  merchants  returned  to 
Antwerp,  where  they  received  a  popular  ovation.^ 
The  remaining  difficulties  were  discussed  at  con- 
ferences at  Bruges  in  1498  and  at  Calais  in  the  follow- 
ing year,  and  a  treaty  of  18th  May  1499  settled  the 
outstanding  questions.^  The  assistance  of  the  Staple 
merchants  was  obtained  in  the  drafting  of  the  treaty, 
and  the  gain  to  England  was  considerable.  The 
price  of  English  wool  sold  by  the  Staple  merchants 
at  Calais  was  slightly  reduced  in  favour  of  Flemish 
purchasers,  and  in  return  duties  on  English  cloth  were 
removed,  though  its  sale  retail  in  the  Netherlands  was 
forbidden.  The  articles  which  allowed  the  English 
merchants  to  export  gold  from  the  Netherlands  were 
regarded  as  specially  advantageous. 

This  settlement,  however,  like  those  that  went  before 
it,  was  disturbed  by  the  appearance  of  fresh  political 
difficulties  about  the  end  of  1504.  The  cause  of  them 
remains  obscure,  but  it  seems  more  than  probable  that 

'  CUy  Chron.,  p.  209. 

2  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  329,  ii.  61-72  ;  Berg.,  Spanish  Cat.,  pp. 
112,  13'^  189,  196-8  ;   Kj-mer.  xii.  648,  654-7  :   Hall,  p.  483. 
*  Berg.,  Spajiish  Cal.,  pp.  196,  198,  209  ;   Kymer.  xii.  713-20. 


1485-1509]     COMMERCE    AND    INDUSTRY       169 

Philip,  resenting  a  rumour  that  Henry  was  sending 
money  to  the  rebelHous  Duke  of  Gueldres  in  the  hope  of 
buying  the  surrender  of  his  rebel  the  Duke  of  Suffolk — 
a  nice  complication  of  dynastic  interests — had  again 
imposed  heavy  duties  on  English  cloth.  Though  this  is 
a  surmise  rather  than  a  certainty,  the  fact  of  renewed 
trade  difficulties  is  clear.  After  the  failure  of  negotia- 
tions for  the  removal  of  the  duties  conducted  by  the 
Spanish  envoy  Manuel,  Henry  retaliated  by  transfer- 
ring the  English  cloth  market  for  the  third  time  from 
Antwerp  to  Calais  (15th  January  1505),  and  followed 
this  up  by  imposing  a  duty  on  English  cloth  exported 
from  Calais  to  the  Low  Countries.  ^  Philip  raised  the 
duty  on  English  cloth  to  correspond,  and  finally 
imports  were  again  forbidden  on  both  sides.  Once 
again  there  was  a  bad  effect  on  the  trade  in  Flanders 
without  injuring  English  merchants  to  the  same 
extent.  Andre's  flattering  language,  which  suggests 
that  the  removal  of  the  market  to  Calais  was  an 
advantage  to  England,  cannot  be  relied  upon,  but 
the  Venetian  and  Spanish  papers  support  Andre's 
view.  The  silence  of  the  English  chroniclers  also 
proves  that  trade  in  England  cannot  have  been  much 
affected.-  The  stoppage  of  trade  was  keenly  felt 
in  the  Netherlands,  and  Philip,  who  had  been  obliged 
to  withdraw  the  prohibition  of  the  importation  of 
English  cloth,  sent  one  envoy  after  another  to  England 
to  try  and  improve  the  situation.  Henry  stood  firm, 
supported  by  national  feeling,  and  the  whole  course 
of  the  dispute  is  a  proof,  if  proof  be  needed,  of  the 

1  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII. ,\i.  379;  Berg.,  Spanish  CaL,  pp.  266,  286  ; 
Brown,  Ven.  CaL,  Nos.  846,  860  ;   Busch.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  185,  368. 

*  Andre,  Annates,  pp.  83,  84  ;  Berg.,  pp.  368-9  ;  Brown,  Ven.  Cal., 
Noe.  846,  849,  860  ;   L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  379. 


170  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

great  advances  made  by  English  trade  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  reign.  The  dispute  lasted  until  150G,  when 
shipwreck  left  PhiUp  in  England  at  Henry's  mercy. ^ 

Under  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  signed  in  London 
on  30th  April  1506,  the  tolls  fixed  in  1496  were  to 
be  continued,  and  were  not  to  be  arbitrarily  raised 
above  the  rates  which,  in  the  view  of  those  who 
drafted  the  treaty,  "  had  been  customary  since  the 
beginning  of  the  world."  English  merchants,  how- 
ever, were  to  be  exempted  from  certain  local  tolls, 
and  retail  sale  of  English  cloth  was  to  be  permitted 
all  through  the  Netherlands  except  in  Flanders."  The 
obvious  unfairness  of  these  arrangements  made  the 
treaty  of  little  practical  value.  For  once  Henry  had 
overreached  himself.  It  was  one  of  the  mistakes 
that  mars  the  policy  of  Henry's  later  years,  when  liis 
diplomacy  loses  the  practical  reasonableness  before 
so  characteristic  of  it.  It  was  hopeless  to  expect 
Philip's  subjects  to  acquiesce  in  a  treaty  which  placed 
them  at  such  a  glaring  disadvantage.  Philip  himself 
declined  to  ratify  it,  and  on  his  death  in  September 
1506  the  commercial  difficulty  was  still  unsettled. 
The  Regent  Margaret  at  once  suggested  a  return  to 
the  arrangements  of  the  treaty  of  1496.^  Henry 
frankly  expressed  his  keen  disappointment,  but  as  he 
was  very  anxious  to  remain  on  friendly  terms  with 
Margaret,  he  adopted  a  much  less  uncompromising 
attitude  than  in  his  negotiations  with  Maximilian  and 
Philip.  He  drew  up  a  draft  scheme  which  became 
the  basis  for  the  final  settlement  of  commercial 
relations.     The  treaty  signed  in  June  1507  restored 

>   See  below,  p.  344. 

«  Rymer,  xiii.  132-142;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  289-293.  ii.  365. 

»  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII..  i.  327-337. 


1485-1509]     CO^DIERCE    AND    INDUSTRY        171 

the  arrangements  of  1496,  the  exemptions  from  local 
tolls  allowed  to  English  merchants  in  150G,  how- 
ever, being  allowed  to  stand.  The  arrangements  of 
loOG  about  the  retail  sale  of  English  cloth  were 
abandoned.  This  satisfactory  settlement  endured  till 
the  end  of  the  reign.  . 

Henry's  policy  with  regard  to  the  Hansard 
merchants  was  a  reflection  of  popular  feeling  in 
England.  The  Hansard  merchants  had  captured  a 
great  part  of  the  trade  between  England  and 
North  Germany  during  the  period  when  England 
was  crippled  by  civil  war,  and  Edward  IV.  had 
repaid  them  for  their  political  and  financial  support 
by  a  charter  granting  them  extraordinary  pri\i- 
leges.  Thus,  at  the  accession  of  Henry  VII.,  a 
body  of  alien  merchants  were  settled  in  the  country, 
trading  in  English  goods  on  better  terms  than 
Englishmen  themselves.  Owing  to  the  prevalent 
jealousy  and  suspicion  of  alien  merchants,  the  favoured 
position  of  the  Hansard  merchants  was  as  unpopular 
as  it  was  anomalous.^  Nothing  proves  more  clearly 
the  feebleness  of  the  central  government  and  the 
decay  of  English  commerce  than  the  position  of  the 
men  of  the  Steelyard.  The  fact  that  English  mer- 
chants had  no  corresponding  privileges  in  the  towns 
of  the  Hanse  League  made  the  arrangement  a  glaring 
himiiliation  and  injustice. 

Henry  VII.  set  himself  to  vindicate  the  position  of 
his  ow^n  subjects  and  to  restrain  the  privileges  of  the 
Hansards.  Even  in  the  stormiest  years  of  his  reign 
he  pursued  this  policy,  though  many  years  elapsed 

^  The  preamble  of  the  Act  of  Henry's  first  Parliament  raising  the 
rates  of  the  duties  paid  by  the  alien  merchants  is  a  vivid  summary 
of  the  Englishman's  jealousy.    See  1  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  3 ;  Stab.,  ii.  501-2. 


172  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

before  he  met  with  much  success.  Caution  and 
moderation  were  very  necessary  at  first,  in  view  of 
the  great  power  of  the  Hansards.  When  Henry's 
first  Parhament  granted  him  tonnage  and  poundage 
for  hfe,  the  Hanse  merchants  were  exempted  as  before 
from  the  higher  rates  imposed  on  ahens.  They  paid 
exactly  the  same  as  the  native  merchants,  and  their 
special  privileges  were  confirmed  by  charter  in  March 
1486.^  Signs  of  a  change,  however,  soon  appeared. 
A  statute  of  Richard  III.  restricting  exports  was 
revived,  Hansards  were  forbidden  to  export  any  cloth 
except  fully  dressed  cloth,  complaints  of  piracies 
committed  by  their  ships  were  brought  forward,  and 
their  privilege  of  trading  in  "  their  own  commodities  " 
was  interpreted  as  meaning  products  of  the  Hanse 
towns  only.  At  least  one  of  their  vessels  was  cap- 
tured by  Henry's  ships,  attacks  on  individual  mer- 
chants were  made,  and  the  whole  body  was  even 
threatened  with  expulsion  from  England.  Henry's 
proposal  that  a  Diet  should  be  held  to  discuss  the 
complaints  and  claims  of  English  merchants,  ignored 
at  first,  was  acceded  to  in  the  face  of  the  growing 
storm.  The  Diet  met  at  Antwerp  in  June  1491,  and 
came  to  an  agreement  under  which  English  merchants 
gained  the  right  to  trade  with  Dantzig.-  This  slight 
gain  was  all  that  Henry's  envoys  won,  and  English 
merchants  were  still  in  a  very  inferior  position  in  the 
North  German  trade. 

In  another  direction,  however,  the  king's  quiet 
campaign  against  the  Hansards  had  met  with 
marked  success.     Much  of  the  valuable   trade  with 

'  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  pp.  270,  407;  Busch,  op.  cit.,  p.  73. 
*  The  town  was  important  as  a  point  of  contact  with  the  trade 
from  the  Far  East.     Rymer.  xii.  441-2  ;   Busch,  op.  cit.,  pp.  333-5. 


1485-1509]      COMMERCE    AND    INDUSTRY       173 

Iceland  had  been  monopolised  by  the  Hansards 
under  licence  from  the  King  of  Denmark,  but 
some  daring  English  merchants — men  of  Scarborough 
and  Bristol — had  carried  on  an  unauthorised  and 
contraband  trade  without  the  permission  of  the 
King  of  Denmark.  The  exclusiveness  of  the  Hanse 
merchants  had  made  them  very  unpopular  in  Denmark 
and  Scandinavia,  and  Henry  used  their  unpopu- 
larity to  gain  a  regular  footing  for  English  merchants. 
In  August  1489  he  sent  an  embassy  to  Denmark,  and 
on  January  in  the  following  year  a  commercial  treaty 
was  drawn  up  admitting  English  merchants  to  trade 
with  Denmark  and  Iceland  on  very  favourable  terms, 
and  allowing  them  to  incorporate  themselves.^ 

These  slight  advantages  obtained  by  Henry's  diplo- 
macy were  not  sufficient  to  disarm  national  jealousy 
of  the  Hansards,  and  it  became  acute  when,  during 
the  cessation  of  commercial  intercourse  between  Eng- 
land and  Flanders,  the  Hanse  merchants  employed 
themselves  in  the  trade  forbidden  to  British  subjects, 
gaining  not  a  little  advantage  from  their  position. 
Bitter  feelins  led  to  a  riot  in  London  on  15th  October 
1493."-  The  Merchant  Adventurers  and  other  London 
citizens  attacked  the  Steelyard,  and  were  only  repelled 
with  the  help  of  a  force  sent  by  the  Mayor.  Henry 
profited  by  this  display  of  national  resentment 
to  extort  from  the  Hansards  a  sum  of  £20,000,  to 
be  held  by  him  as  a  pledge  that  they  would  not 
take  part  in  the  forbidden  trade  with  the  Netherlands, 

1  Rymer,  xii.  373-7,  381-7.  The  fact  that  Henry  had  been  able 
to  form  a  combination,  which  threatened  the  interests  of  the  Han- 
sards elsewhere,  gave  his  envoys  a  stronger  position  in  the  Antwerp 
Diet. 

2  See  below,  Hall,  p.  468 ;  Fabyan,  p.  684  ;  Grey  Friare  Chron., 
p.  25. 


174  HENRY    VII  [U85-1509 

A  severe  blow  had  been  dealt  at  their  pri\41eged 
position.  The  unpopularity  of  their  colony  in  London 
continued,  and  the  governing  bodies  of  the  Hanse 
towns  remonstrated  with  their  merchants  in  London 
on  their  alleged  dishonesty,  extravagance,  and  dis- 
solute behaviour.  In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the 
Hansards  to  gain  redress,  Henry  continued  hostile, 
but  as  he  knew  that  English  shipping  was  insufficient 
to  carry  on  the  whole  trade  (even  if  he  were  strong 
enough  to  wrest  it  from  their  hands),  he  stopped  short 
of  provoking  an  absolute  breach  with  the  powerful 
confederacy  of  to\vns.  He  made  no  secret  of  his 
unfavourable  attitude,  and  treated  the  representatives 
of  the  Hansards  with  studied  discourtesy.  In  1497 
the  conference  repeatedly  asked  for  by  the  Hansards 
was  appointed  to  meet  at  Antwerp,  but  the  English 
envoys  complained  that  the  Hansard  representatives 
had  not  authority  to  represent  the  whole  confederacy, 
and  left  Antwerp  before  the  hastily  despatched  envoys 
had  returned  with  their  fuller  powers.^ 

Meanwhile,  Henry  was  making  a  further  attack  on 
the  Hansard  monopoly  of  the  North  German  trade. 
The  agreement  permitting  English  merchants  to  trade 
with  Dantzig  had  proved  a  dead-letter  owing  to  the 
hostility  of  the  Dantzig  merchants.  He  opened 
negotiations  with  the  town  of  Riga,  and  in  November 
1498  an  agreement  was  reached  by  which  English 
merchants  were  allowed  to  trade  in  Riga  on  very 
favourable  terms.-  Henry  hoped  that  he  had  thus 
obtained  a  point  of  entry  into  the  profitable  trade  with 
the  Far  East,  but  the  Hansards  resented  this  arrange- 
ment, and  at  a  diet  held  at  Bruges  in  the  summer  of 
1499,  the  feeling  on  both  sides  was  so  strong  that  there 

»  Rymer,  xii.  651-2.  *  Ihid.,  700-4. 


1485-1509]      COIMMERCE    AND    INDUSTRY       175 

seemed  little  prospect  of  an  agreement  being  reached. 
The  Hansards  were  bent  on  obtaining  some  redress 
of  their  grievances.  What  they  had  suffered  in 
England  ought  to  be  recorded  "  ^vith  a  pen  of  iron  on 
a  hard  flint  stone  that  it  might  never  be  forgotten." 
Henry's  envoys  told  them  loftily  that  the  king  would 
not  hear  of  any  alteration  of  the  existing  law,  and 
that  they  had  better  trust  themselves  to  his  mercy. 
Henry's  attempt  to  separate  Riga  from  the  League 
failed.  The  town  submitted  under  pressure,  and 
surrendered  its  separate  arrangement  with  England.^ 
Henry's  anxiety  to  gain  a  share  of  the  Baltic  trade 
proved  that  English  trade  was  growing  fast 
enough  to  make  the  Hansard  monopoly  felt  as 
a  restriction,  but  his  failure  showed  that  English 
merchants,  even  when  strongly  supported  by  their 
sovereign,  were  not  yet  powerful  enough  to  break 
through  the  fetters  imposed  by  a  powerful  and  well- 
organised  league.  Henr}\  however,  has  to  his  credit 
two  attempts  to  gain  new  markets — or  more  strictly 
to  recover  old  markets — for  his  subjects ;  he  was  a 
pioneer  on  the  path  ultimately  thrown  open  to 
British  traders. 

After  1500  there  is  a  distinct  change  in  the  character 
of  the  king's  relations  with  the  Hansard  towns.  His 
former  freedom  of  action  was  fettered  by  the  political 
complication  of  Suffolk's  intrigues,  and  under  the 
pressure  of  circumstances  he  made  a  serious  mistake. 
Suffolk  had  taken  refuge  in  one  of  the  Imperial 
towns.  Henry  had  tried  and  failed  to  induce 
Maximilian  to  have  him  proclaimed  as  a  traitor,  and 
he  decided  to  approach  the  Hansards,  all  powerful 

*  The  submission  of  Riga  was  announced  in  the  sununer  of  1500. 
Busch,  op.  cit.,  pp.  164,  155. 


176  HENRY     VII  [1485-1509 

in  the  towns  of  Germany,  and  negotiate  through 
them  for  his  surrender.  This  is  the  explanation  of 
the  Act  of  1504  which  removed  all  the  disabilities 
under  which  the  Hansards  suffered.  "  saving  only  the 
freedom  and  privileges  of  the  town  of  London."  ^ 
It  was  a  total  reversal  of  Henry's  policy.  His  willing- 
ness to  sacrifice  important  trade  interests  to  a  very 
doubtful  diplomatic    advantage    is   another  instance 

/     of  the  curious  deterioration  of  policy  visible  in  the 
king's    later    years.     Fortunately,    this    reactionary 

- — measure  never  took  effect.  When  Suffolk  left  Aix  in 
April  1504,  the  attempt  to  bribe  the  Hansard  towns 
became  useless.  Henry  repudiated  his  obligations 
with  cjmical  aplomb  and  resumed  his  former  attitude 
of  hostility.  In  an  ambiguous  saving  clause  of  the 
Act  of  1504,  he  found  the  way  of  escape  he  desired. 
The  increased  privileges  of  the  Hansards  were  de- 
clared to  be  an  infringement  of  the  rights  of  the  city 
of  London,  and  customs  were  again  imposed  at  the 
higher  rates.  J 

In  1504,  when  commercial  intercourse  with  Bur-  | 
gundy  was  again  forbidden,  the  Hansards  in  London 
were  asked  to  hand  over  another  large  sum  to  the 
king  as  security  that  they  would  not  engage  in  the 
forbidden  trade.  The  original  pledge  of  £20,000 
still  remained  in  the  king's  hands,  and  in  July  1508, 
about  the  date  when  its  restoration  fell  due,  Henry 
declared  it  forfeited  owing  to  the  export  of  cloth  to 
Burgundy  during  the  prohibited  period.  Thus,  all 
through  the  reign,  with  one  brief  interruption.  Henry 
had  consistently  pursued  his  policy  of  hostility  to 
the  alien  merchants.     He  had  shorn  them  of  many 

'   19  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  23  ;    Stat.,  ii.  664-5  ;   Fabyan,  Chron.,  688. 


1485-1509]      COMMERCE    AND    INDUSTRY      177 

of  their  privileges,  and  left  the  field  open  for  the 
competition  of  his  own  subjects,  to  their  great  gain.^ 

The  position  in  the  Mediterranean  was  closely 
analogous  to  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  Baltic  and 
North  Sea.  At  Henry's  accession  the  lion's  share 
of  the  trade  with  England  had  been  grasped  by 
Italian  merchants — the  men  of  Venice  being  the 
largest  traders — and  was  carried  in  Venetian  galleys. 
English  merchants  chafed  jealously  against  their 
monopoly,  but  as  the  Italian  merchants  did  not 
occupy  a  specially  privileged  position  in  England 
like  the  Hansards,  the  situation  was  not  nearly  so 
acute.  Besides,  the  trade  was  specially  profitable  to 
both  countries.  English  wool  was  the  raw  material 
upon  which  the  Italian  weaving  industry  depended, 
and  the  Venetian  galleys  brought  to  England  the 
Italian  wines,  silks,  cloth  of  gold,  fine  cloth,  and 
other  luxuries  Englishmen  were  beginning  to  find  it 
difficult  to  do  without.  Thus  the  Italian  trade 
brought  England  into  contact  with  the  centre  of 
European  civilisation. ^ 

The  legislation  of  Henry's  first  Parliament  left 
the  position  of  the  Venetian  merchants  who  had 
settled  in  England  unaltered,  except  that  an  Act  was 
passed  imposing  upon  those  merchants  who  had 
become  naturalised  in  England  customs  dues  and 
taxes  on  the  same  scale  as  they  had  paid  before 
naturalisation.^  Early  in  Henry's  reign  English 
merchants  tried  to  gain  part  of  the  carrying  trade 
in  Italian  wine  by  offering  much  cheaper  rates  of 
freight.     This  attempt  was  checked  by  a  decree  of 

1  Brown,  Fen.  Cal.,  Nos.  728-30,  73&-4I,  754,  764. 
»  Ibid.,  Nos.  498-500,  502-5,  507-10,  512,  515,  517. 
3   1  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  2  ;   Stat.,  ii.  601-2  ;   Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  289 

M 


178  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

the  Venetian  Senate  (14th  November  1488),  which 
imposed  an  additional  duty  on  wine  carried  in 
foreign  ships,  thus  not  only  equalising  matters, 
but  even  penalising  British  ships.  ^  It  looked  as 
though  Englishmen  would  be  driven  out  of  the  trade 
altogether  when  Henry  took  the  matter  up.  The 
case  did  not  call  for  the  extreme  caution  that  had 
marked  his  dealings  with  the  Hansards.  The  king 
grasped  the  fact  that  Italy  could  not,  even  if  she 
would,  give  up  the  English  trade.  He  struck  swiftly 
and  surely  ;  the  year  1490  saw  the  treaty  with  Venice's 
great  trade  rival  Florence  and  the  second  Navigation 
Act,2  both  of  which  deeply  affected  Venetian  traders. 
*^The  treaty  with  Florence  (15th  April  1490)  made  the 
Florentine  port  of  Pisa  the  staple  for  the  sale  of 
English  wool,  and  provided  that  English  ships  alone 
were  to  be  engaged  in  the  trade.  The  treaty  also 
provided  that  the  English  merchants  in  Pisa  might 
form  themselves  into  a  company,^  this  being  the 
first  attempt  to  start  "  a  regular  factory  of  English 
merchants  in  the  Mediterranean."  ** 

For  a  time  the  Senate  ignored  both  this  treaty  and 
the  menacing  Navigation  Acts,  and  maintained  the 
extra  duty  on  wine  brought  in  foreign  ships. '^ 
Countervailing  duties  were  imposed  in  England  in 
1492,  and  in  spite  of  protests  from  Venice  were  con- 
tinued for  several  years.  Henry's  firm  attitude,  and 
the  economic  dependence  of  Italy  on  English  wool, 
at  last  resulted  in  the  Signory  giving  way,  taking  off 

*  Brown,  Ven.  Cal.,  No.  544.  *  See  above,  p.  164. 
»  Rymer,  xii.  389-93. 

*  Cunningham,  i.  493-4.  Florence  was  very  favourably  situated 
from  the  EngHsh  point  of  view,  owing  to  her  trade  with  Egypt  and 
Constantinople. 

6  Brown,  Ven.  Cal.,  Nos.  561,  562. 


1485-1509]      COMMERCE    AND    INDUSTRY      179 

the  duties  on  wine  and  leaving  English  ships  free  to 
capture  what  they  could  of  the  carrying  trade.  ^  Even 
then  the  king  did  not  have  the  Act  of  1494  repealed, 
though  he  issued  a  proclamation  allowing  some  de- 
ductions. It  is  noticeable  that  even  at  the  height  of 
the  dispute  the  friendly  relations  between  England  and 
Venice  were  undisturbed,  and  as  time  went  on  they 
became  more  intimate.  Venice  set  a  high  value  on 
Henry's  friendship,  and  was  deeply  anxious  for  his 
entry  into  the  Holy  League.  After  1496  the  Signory 
kept  a  permanent  representative  in  England,  whose 
letters  are  a  valuable  source  of  information.  Venetian 
merchants  enjoyed  the  king's  favour  and  protection  ; 
once  or  twice  they  were  given  assistance  to  repair 
damaged  ships,  and  on  one  occasion  a  Venetian 
captain  had  the  honour  of  dining  at  the  king's  table. 
Venice  received  signal  proofs  of  Henry's  friendship 
in  later  years.  In  1506  a  royal  proclamation  ex- 
empted the  Venetians  from  the  Act  of  1490,  which 
forbade  the  purchase  of  English  wool  by  foreign, 
merchants  until  six  months  after  the  shearing.^  In 
March  of  the  following  year  the  Venetian  merchants 
were  gi\'en  a  new  ten  years'  charter  for  trade  with 
England,  but  at  the  same  time  they  were  forbidden 
to  engage  in  the  trade  between  England  and  the 
Netherlands.^  This  latter  order  is  a  proof  of  the 
recovery  and  steady  growth  of  English  shipping ; 
the  Navigation  Acts  had  gained  for  native  shippers 
an  ever  growing  share  of  the  carrying  trade.     By  his 

»  7  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  7;  Stat.,  ii.  553;  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  457;  Brown, 
Ven.  C'aZ.,  Nos.  606,  609,  627,  795,  832. 

*  This  was  to  give  the  English  cloth  manufacturers  the  advantage 
of  time  and  choice,  4  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  11 ;  Stat.,  ii.  535. 

'  The  Venetian  galleys  had  been  in  the  habit  of  proceeding  to 
Flemish  ports  after  visiting  England. 


180  HENRY    VII  [U85-1509 

refusal  to  join  the  League  of  Cambrai  Henry  gave  the 
last  and  greatest  proof  of  his  friendship  for  the 
threatened  Republic. ^ 

Henry's  commercial  relations  with  France  were 
fairly  simple.  At  his  accession  he  signed  a  treaty 
(17th  January  1486)  which  removed  all  the  fresh 
burdens  that  had  been  placed  upon  the  trade  between 
England  and  France  since  the  accession  of  Edward  IV. ^ 
Commercial  relations,  disturbed  by  the  war,  were 
resumed  immediately  afterwards,  but  both  parties 
had  something  to  complain  of.  Henry  had  passed  his 
second  Navigation  Act  in  1490,  but  on  the  other  hand 
English  merchants  complained  of  fresh  duties  imposed 
during  the  war  and  still  exacted.  Henry  also  made 
strong  representations  on  the  subject  of  the  piracies 
committed  by  the  seamen  of  Brittany  and  Normandy. 
Nothing  was  done,  however,  until  Charles's  attempt 
to  conquer  Naples  gave  Henry  a  chance  of  exacting 
a  high  price  for  English  neutrality.  He  made  good 
use  of  his  opportunity.  Charles  signed  a  decree  at 
Naples  in  April  1495,  which  annulled  the  new  duties 
and  restored  to  English  merchants  the  privileges 
they  had  formerly  enjoyed.^  The  very  favourable 
character  of  this  settlement  from  the  English  point 
of  view  can  be  seen  from  the  bitter  tone  of  the  re- 
monstrances made  by  the  French  merchants.  From 
this  date  until  the  end  of  the  reign  they  complained 
constantly  but  in  vain  of  the  restrictions  under 
which  they  struggled,  and  of  the  extraordinary 
prixileges  allowed  to  English  merchants  in  France. 
Charles's  ambition  had  saddled  his  subjects  with  an 

1  Bro\vn,  Ven.  Vol.,  Nos.  639,  659,  673,  736,  739,  782,  798,  832, 
887,  893,  931,  939,  940.     See  below,  p.  367. 

»  Rymer,  xii.  281-2.  ^  Busch,  op.  cii.,  pp.  351,  358. 


1485-1509]     CO>DIERCE    AND    INDUSTRY        181 

unfavourable  treaty,  and  Henry  had  won  another 
commercial  victory,  the  results  of  which  endured 
till  the  end  of  the  reign. 

Commercial  relations  between  England  and  Spain 
played    a    comparatively    unimportant    part    in    the 
endless  negotiations  between  the  two  powers.     Henry 
won  a  considerable  advantage  at  the  outset  by  a 
misunderstanding.     The  Treaty  of  Medina  del  Campo 
had  settled  that  the  duties  paid  by  Spanish  merchants 
should    be    those    customary    thirty    years    before. ' 
This   meant   the   surrender   of   concessions   made   to 
Spanish  merchants  in  England  since  that  date,  and 
though  the  difficulty  was  obviously  due  to  an  over- 
sight on  the  part  of  the  Spanish  agents,  Henry  clung 
to  his  advantage,  and   duties  were  exacted  on  the 
higher  scale.     The    unfairness    of    this   arrangement 
was   constantly   brought   forward  by  the   Spaniards 
during  the  prolonged  marriage  negotiations,  and  they 
also  objected  to  English  ships  being  employed,  during 
the  war  between  France  and  Spain,  in  trade  between 
the   ports   of  the   two   hostile   powers.     Thus   trade 
afforded  a  subject  for  mutual  recriminations  if  the 
ordinary    topics    of    the    dowry    and    the    marriage 
portion    palled.       The    Spaniards    demanded    secu- 
rities  from  English   ships  clearing  from  their  ports 
that   they   would   not    run   into   French  ports,   and 
threatened  that  duties  on  the  same  scale  as  those 
imposed   on   Spanish   merchants   in   England   would 
be   levied   from   English   merchants   in   Spain.     The 
English    Navigation    Acts    were    also    a    subject    of 
complaint.^     None    of    these    questions    had    been 
settled  by   the   marriage  treaty   of   1496,   and  they 

1  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  Nos.  39,  42-44,  47,  50,  61-63,  65-69,  74^76, 
86-88. 


182  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

continued  to  be  a  source  of  friction  until  1499,  when 
by  the  Treaty  of  10th  July  both  powers  agreed  to 
treat  each  other's  subjects  like  their  own,  "  with 
full  preservation  of  the  local  laws,  rights,  and 
customs."  The  interpretation  of  this  last  clause 
involved  a  renewed  dispute.  Henry  continued  to 
enforce  his  Navigation  Laws  against  Spain  in  spite  of 
remonstrances.^  Concessions  were  made  to  England 
by  a  treaty  of  23rd  June  1503.  but  many  questions 
were  still  outstanding  at  the  end  of  the  reign. 
^-^  The  protective  principles  that  gave  unity  to  the 
king's  commercial  governed  his  industrial  policy. 
Most  of  the  industrial  legislation  of  the  reign  was 
framed  with  a  view  to  encouraging  the  native  artificer 
at  the  expense  of  his  foreign  competitors.  Many  of 
the  industrial  enactments  of  Henry's  Parliaments 
were  not  original,  but  followed  legislation  of  Edward 
IV.  What  was  new  and  interesting  about  Henry's 
policy  was  that  it  was  the  outcome  of  a  definite 
principle  and  part  of  a  well-considered  plan.  His 
legislation  was  not  experimental  like  that  of 
Edward  IV.,  but  was  designed  for  permanence  and 
met  with  some  Success.  The  most  obvious  illustra- 
tion of  this  policy  is  found  in  the  king's  treatment  of 
the  wool  trade  and  of  the  cloth  industry. 

The  cloth  trade  was  still  comparatively  small,  and, 
from  the  Treasury  point  of  \iew,  financially  unim- 
portant. Yet  whenever  the  interests  of  the  two 
trades  conflicted,  as  they  often  did,  Henry  postponed 
the  interests  of  the  wool  trade,  which,  though  pro- 
fitable to  the  king  personally,  had  led  to  great  de- 
population in  the  rural  districts,  to  the  interests  of 
the  industry  that  promised  to  give  employment  to 
an  effective  population.  — ' 

'^^~^eTg.r^pani3h  Cal.,  Nos.  106-8,  114,  119,  123,  254. 


1485-1509]      COMMERCE    AND    INDUSTRY       183 

The  customs  on  wool  amounted  to  fully  one-third 
of  the  king's  total  revenue  from  customs,  but  in  spite 
of  this  a  very  heavy  duty,  amounting  in  some  cases 
to  70  per  cent.,  was  placed  upon  wool  exported  from 
England.^  This  almost  prohibitive  duty  was  im- 
po^d",  as  an  Italian  observer  points  out,  to  prevent 
the  exportation  of  undressed  wool  and  to  stimulate 
the  woollen  cloth  industry,-  which  was  already  flourish- 
ing in  the  eastern  counties,  especially  in  Norfolk  and 
in  the  WestTlidihg  of  Yorkshire.  Two  later  Acts 
checked  an  anticipated  decay  in  Norfolk  by  diminish- 
ing the  restrictions  on  the  taking  of  apprentices ;  ^ 
and  according  to  tradition,  though  there  is  no  clear 
evidence  on  the  point,  Henry  secretly  encouraged 
the  immigration- of  alien  ^york.men  into  Yorkshire  to 
teach  their  methods  to  the  native  workmen.^-- Another 
statut&_(14S9-90),  which  revived  an  earlier  Act  of 
Edward  IV.,  had  given  English  cloth-workers  the 
exclusive  right  of  buymgliT  advance  what  they 
required  of  the  unshorn  crop  of  English  wool.^ 
Foreigners  were  prevented  from  buying  until  some 
months  after  shearing,  so  that  they  could  only  take 
what  the  native  manufactiu:ers  had  left.^  _  In  order 
to  prevent  the  later  processes  of  manufacture  from 
being  monopolised  by  aliens,  a  statute  of  Edward 
wa^re-enacted  and  extended  (14S7).  It  forbade  the 
export  of  "  unrowed  and  unshorn  cloth,"  whereby 
''  outlandissh  nacions  with  the  same  drapry  arne 
sette    on    labour    and    occupacion    to    their    greate 

^  The  whole  revenue  from  customs  on  wool  was  appropriated  to 
the  defence  of  Caleus.     Stat.,  ii.  667-9. 

*  Italian  Relation  (Camden  Soc),  p.  50.     The  duty  on  exported 
cloth  was  never  higher  than  9  per  cent,  of  its  value. 

s   11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  11  ;  12  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  1 ;  Stat.,  ii.  577,  636. 

*  Anderson,  Commerce,  i.  526  ;   Busch,  op.  cit.,  p.  385. 

*  4  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  11  ;  StcU.,  ii.  535-6. 


184  HENRY    VII  [1485-1609 

enriching,  and  the  kynges  true  hegemen  .  .  .  for  lake 
of  such  occupacion  dailly  fall  in  greate  number  to 
ydelnes  and  povertie."  ^ 

In  his  endeavour  to  foster  the  English  cloth  in- 
dustry Henry  came  into  conflict  with  long-established 
monopolies,  and  the  monopolists  had  to  give  way. 
His  attacks  on  the  Hansard  merchants  had  greatly 
strengthened  the  position  of  their  rivals,  the  Merchant 
Adventurers.  The  latter  were  specially  strong  in 
London,  and  there  they  had  adopted  an  exclusive 
attitude  which  roused  much  jealousy  in  the  provinces. 
They  attempted  to  keep  the  whole  of  the  Flemish 
trade  in  their  hands,  and  passed  a  decree  which  re- 
quired an  entrance  fee  of  £20  from  every  merchant 
trading  with  the  Netherlands.  This  attem^Dt  to 
confine  the  trade  to  the  wealthier  merchants  was 
quite  at  variance  with  the  spirit  of  Henry's  policy. 
He  refused  to  allow  the  interests  of  an  industry, 
which  was  of  great  importance  from  the  national 
point  of  view,  to  be  subordinated  to  the  greed  of  a 
group  of  wealthy  men.  An  Act  of  Parliament  passed 
in_1497  declared  trade  with  the  Netherlands  free, 
reducing  the  entrance  fee  to  ten  marks.  ^  The  selfish 
spirit  of  monopoly  checked,  the  Merchant  Adven- 
turers continued  to  prosper,  gaining  strength  as  the 
restrictions  on  the  Hansards  increased.  Having  once 
got  the  upper  hand  of  them,  Henry  made  use  of  their 
powerful  organisation  to  enforce  throughout  the 
kingdom  royal  regulations  of  the  clothJ;rade.  In  the 
later  years  of  the  reign  the  Merchant  Adventurers 
received    many    marks    of    royal    favour.     Thus,    in 

^  3  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  12  ;    Stat.,  ii.  520-1.     Foreign  merchants  com- 
plained that  the  unskilled  English  shearmen  spoilt  the  cloth. 
*  12  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  6  ;   SkU.,  ii.  638-9  ;   Busch,  op.  cit.,  p.  244. 


1485-1509]     CODIERCE    AND    INDUSTRY       185 

1499,  the  company  obtained  permission  to  use  its 
own  coat  of  arms,  and  in  the  following  year  its 
charter  was  confirmed.  In  1505  there  was  a  general 
reorganisation  of  the  whole  company  by  Act_oI 
Parliament;  AT^governing  body,  composed  of  an_ 
elected^governor'and  twenty-four  assistants,  was  set 
up,  and  given  power  to  settle  the  affairs  of  the  trade 
and  decide  disputes  between  members,  subject  always 
to  the  king's  authority.^  By  giving  additional 
executive  powers  to  a  body  which  he  had  reduced  to 
submission  and  dependence,  Henry  increased  the 
control  of  the  Crown  over  one  of  the  most  important 
trades  in  the  country.    .  \ 

Henry's  protective  xnea  si i rps  were— not» Jiowe ver^ 
framed  in  a  spirit  of  rigid  exclusiveness,  and, 
where  national  interests  were  not  involved,  the 
interests  of  the  consumer  _were_  considered.  An 
example  of  this  is  his  treatment  of  the  silk  trade. 
Though  there  was  great  jealousy  of  the  Italian  silk 
merchants,  and  the  importation  of  certain  manu- 
factured silk  goods  was  forbidden  by  Act  of  Parliament 
in  1485,  Henry  did  not  consider  the  native  industry 
sufficiently  advanced  to  supply  the  needs  of  the 
country,  and  in  1504  all  silk  goods  except  those  men- 
tioned in  the  Act — '"  corses,  gyrdelles,  rybandes,  laces, 
calle  sylke  or  coleyn  sylke  " — were  to  be  imported  free.^         j 

Henry's    attempts    to    deal    with   the   agricultural        / 
problem  were  spirited  but  unsuccessful.     The  circum-       > 
stances  that  produced  the  flourishing  cloth  trade  had      | 
brought    agriculture    into    difficulties.     Owing    to  .a 
variety   of   causes,   of  which  the   Black  Death,   the 

^  The  meeting-place  of  the  governing  body  was  first  Calais  and 
afterwards  Antwerp.     Busch,  op.  cit.,  p.  245. 

«  1  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  9  ;    19  Hen.  Vn.,  cap.  21  ;  Stat.,  ii.  506,  664. 


186  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

decline  of  the  monasteries,  and  the  disorders  of  the 
civil  wars  are"  the  most  important,  there  had  been 
almost  complete  stagnation  in  agricultural  methods. 
What  a  man's  father  and  grandfather  had  done,  that 
he  continued  to  do,  often  less  thoroughly.  This 
equilibrium  gave  way  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII. 
The  high  price  of  wool,  and  the  increased  demand  for 
it,  led  to  the  conversion  of  much  arable  land  into 
pasture.  Small  holdings  were  thrown  together,  great 
flocks  of  sheep  were  kept,  and  there  was  a  diminished 
demand  for  labour.  The  state  of  affairs  is  familiar 
to  us  through  the  indignant  eloquence  of  contem- 
poraries. "  Where  there  hath  been  many  houses  and 
churches  to  the  honour  of  God,  now  you  shall  find 
nothing  but  shepcotes  and  stables  to  the  ruin  of 
men."  ^  "  The  husbandmen  thrust  out  of  their  own, 
or  else  by  covin  and  fraud,  or  by  violent  oppression, 
put  beside  it,  or  by  wrong  and  injury  so  wearied 
that  they  sell  all,  .  .  .  the  noblemen  and  gentle- 
men, yea,  and  certain  abbots,  holy  men  no  doubt, 
that  leave  no  ground  for  tillage,  they  enclose  all  into 
pasture,  they  throw  down  houses,  they  pluck  down 
towns  and  leave  nothing  standing,  but  only  the 
church  to  be  made  a  sheep  house."  '^ 

The  situation  presented  elements  of  grave  political 
danger.  The  depopulation  of  the  countryside,  the 
number  of  men  Jjipown-mtt-of  employment,  the  wide- 
sprea:d;'dislress^alLthreatened  the  king's  dearest  aims. 
Henry  made  several  alleinpts"  to  stem  thie  tide  of 
revolution  by  legislative  interference  ;  ^  but  natural 
forces  were  too  strong  for  him.  As  the  great  profits 
to   be   obtained     from    wool-growing   were   realised, 

*  Starkey,  Description  of  England.  ^  More,  Utopia,  32. 

»  4  Hen.  VII.,  caps.  16,  19;  Stat.,  ii.  540-42. 


1485-1509]     COMMERCE    AND    INDUSTRY       187 

more  and  more  land  was  laid  down  to  pasture.     A  / 
pressing  social  problem  remained  unsolved  as  a  legacy  / 
for  the  next  reign.  ^     Fortunately,  however,  there  was 
no  great  rise  in  the  price"  of~corri  durnig  the  reigiir 
Tmproved"farmingled_toa^rea,ter  production  of  corn 
from  the  diminlshed^area  under  the  plough,^  and  little__ 
corn    was    expofte^I^^-On    the    rare    occasions    when 
prices  rose  owing  to  a  bad  harvest,  as  in  1491,  the 
export  oT'corn  was  forbidden,^  the  needs  of  the  wTiole 
nationT^bein^-^  preferred    to    the    profit    of    the    corn 
growers.     The  king  also  attempted  to  encourage  the 
breeding  of  horses  and  cattle  by  legislation.     The 
export   of   horses   was   forbidden,^   and   the  licenses- 
necessary   for  the  exportation  of    cattle  and   sheej) 
were  very  sparingly  issued,^  in  order  to  prevent  con- 
tinental Ib'reeds  bein^  miproved  by  mixture  with  the 
English  stock.     At  the  same  time  the  fishing  industry 
was  regulated  and  protected.^ 

The  same  conflict  between  the  old  order  and  the 
new  that  embittered  the  agricultural  difficulty  was  at 
work  in  the  organisation  of  industry.     The  expanding 

1  Several  cases  which  illustrate  the  enclosure  movement  may  be 
found  in  Star  Chamber  Cases  (Selden  Soc.  and  Somers  Rec.  Soc.)- 

*  The  enclosure  movement  was  not  entirely  due  to  sheep -farming. 
Some  enclosiu-es  took  place  from  a  desire  to  escape  the  conservative 
methods  of  strip  tenancy,  and  adopt  improved  methods  on  a  con- 
solidated holding.  Cunningham  {Royal  Hist.  Soc.  Trans.,  1910); 
Busch,  op.  cit.,  p.  386. 

3  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  372 ;  "Victualia  "  are  usually  mentioned 
in  the  conunercial  treaties  of  the  reign  among  the  articles  which 
ought  to  be  freely  exported  and  imported.  E.g.,  Rymer,  xii.  582  ; 
Busch,  op.  cit.,  p.  387. 

*  11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  13  ;  Stat.,  ii.  p.  578. 

^  Edward  IV.  had  issued  these  Ucenses  frequently.  The  Duchess 
Margaret  was  deprived  by  Henry  of  her  license  to  have  1000  oxen 
and  2000  rams  exported  to  her  every  year. 

*  The  fishing  industry  was  the  school  of  English  mariners,  and 
its  interests  were  carefully  considered  by  the  king. 


188  HENRY    VII  IU85-1509 

manufactures  were  outgrowing  the  craft  gild  re- 
gulations and  rebelling  against  restrictions  that 
seemed  ineffective  as  well  as  oppressive.  The  ap- 
pearance of  new  ideas  about  competitive  prices 
jarred  harshly  with  the  medieval  view  of  a  fair 
price.  Gild  regulations  were  not  framed  to  harmonise 
new  ideas  and  old  methods,  and  the  effort  to  escape 
from  them  caused  the  migration  of  woollen  and  linen 
manufacturers  into  rural  districts,  which  explains 
the  constant  complaints  of  the  decay  of  the  to^vns. 
Many  of  the  older  towns  were  in  a  very  bad  state, 
with  streets  deserted  and  houses  falling  into  ruins. 
Remissions  of  taxation  had  to  be  constantly  made  to 
the  towns  that  were  unable  to  sustain  the  burden 
of  the  old  assessment.^  It  was  Henry's  settled 
policy  to  bring  the  gilds  under  his  control.  In  nearly 
every  case  State  interference  was  exerted  in  the 
interests  of  the  community  against  a  class  of  privi- 
leged monopolists.  A^^series^of  Acts  was_passedcon- 
trolling  th^  craft  ^Ods  in  particular  easesl  Thus 
Parliarnent  defined  the  weight  and  quality  of  cloth, 
arranged  the  details  of  apprenticeship  and  inspection 
by  gild  ofRcTaTsjandT  settled  disputes  bet^ye_en  rival 
gilds.2  But  the  most  important  step  of  all  (and  one 
which  has  attracted  but  little  notice)  was  taken  in 
1504,  when  the  gilds  were  brought  under  the  control 
61  the  courts.  _  The  Act  declared  that  no  gild  re- 
gulation should  be  binding  until  it  had  been  approved 
by  the  Xhancellor,  the  Treasurer,  the  chief  justice* 

'  Certain  reductions  were  made  every  time  a  subsidy  was  granted . 
York,  Lincoln,  and  Great  Yarmouth  were  much  impoverished. 

*  12  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  4;  11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  11;  19  Hen.  VII., 
cap.  17  ;  Stai.,  ii.  677-8,  637,  662.  In  1501  complaints  of  a  scarcity 
of  bread,  which  was  thought  to  be  due  to  the  action  of  the  bakers' 
gild,  led  to  the  interference  of  Government. 


1486-1509]       COMMERCE    AND    INDUSTRY      189 

of  the  King's  Bench  and  Comnion  Pleas,  or  the  judges 
on  circuit.^  It  was  a  measure  which  secured  greater 
uniformity  of  trade  regulations,  broke  down  local 
jealousies,  and  most  important  of  all  perhaps,  from 
Henry's  point  of  view,  rendered  the  king's  control 
of  industry  effective.'^ 

Henry's  dealings  with  the  capital  are  another 
illustration  of  his  anxiety  to  break  down  local  ex- 
clusiveness  and  advance  towards  the  still  distant 
ideal  of  free  trade  within  the  kingdom.  In  1487  an 
Act  of  Parliament  annulled  an  ordinance  of  the 
City  of  London  which  actually  forbade  London 
merchants  to  frequent  markets  outside  the  city.^ 
At  the  same  time  the  old  privileges  of  the  city  which 
forbade  foreigners  to  buy  and  sell  retail  except  through 
citizens  were  confirmed.^  Henry  shared  to  the  full 
the  contemporary  jealousy  of  the  alien  trader. 

The  importance  to  a  statesman  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  the  credit  system  was  in  its  infancy, 
of  being  able  to  lay  his  hand  at  any  moment  on  a 
considerable  hoard  of  treasure,  can  hardly  be  exag- 
gerated. Henry  VII.  was  not  the  only  king  in 
Europe  who  hoarded  bullion,  but  he  was  the  only 
one  who  made  "a"considerable  success  of  it.  The 
pos^jsion_of  accumulated  treasure  strengthened  him 
against  rebellion  and  invasion,  and  his  reputation 
f orjwealth"  woii  liim  consideration  and  deference  in 
Europe^  Taxes,  fines,  and  benevolences  replenished 
his  hoard,  and  "  golden  showers  poured  down  upon 

1   19  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  7  ;   Stat.,  ii.  652. 

*  A  former  Act  of  Heniy  VI.,  which  had  given  the  municipal 
authorities  control  over  the  gilds,  had  been  almost  a  dead  letter. 
15  Hen.  Yl.,  cap.  6. 

3  3  Henry  VII.,  cap.  10  ;   Stat.,  ii.  518-519. 

«  Busch,  op.  cU.,  p.  244. 


190  HENRY     VII  [1485-1509 

the  king's  treasury."  In  addition  he  attempted  to. 
prevent  gold  coin  and  bulhon  from  leaving  the 
country.  In  1187-Jae  revived  the  law  of  EdwarH 
IV.  which  forbade  alien_merchailts_  or  merchants 
from  Irelang^o^^J^^rn-sey  to  carry  go[d  o\^t  of  the 
kingdom,  and  ordered  that  they  should  buy  other 
commo'dities  with  fhe~m6hey  obtained  from  the  saje  of 
their  good^::^^ — 5^s  Act7~ originally  limited  to  seven 
years,  was  made  permanent  by  Henry  VII.  Three 
years  later  alien  merchants  were  forbidden  to  take 
more  than  ten  crowns  out  of  the  country,^  and  in 
1504  it  was  enacted  that  not  more  than  6s.  8d. 
should  be  exported  by  any  merchant  to  Ireland.' 
Henry  tried  to  increase  the  supply  of  the  precious 
metals  in  another  way  by  giving  special  rights  and 
priN-ileges  to  the  Southampton  Metal  Staple.^  On 
the  whole  these  measures  were  very  successful.  A 
long  period  of  peace  stopped  the  drain  of  gold  to  the 
Continent,  and  Henry's  considerable  subsidies  to  his 
allies  were  balanced  by  the  payment  of  pensions. 

The  currency  was  in  a  chaotic  condition  during 
the  early  years  of  the  reign.  Debased,  clipped,  and 
foreign  coins  were  in  circulation,  and  there  was  much 
counterfeit  money.  ^  Andre  spoke  of  Henry's  re- 
form of  the  currency  as  one  of  his  twelve  herculean 
labours,  and  he  certainly  had  some  success  in  a 
difficult    business.^     Stern    measures   were   taken   to 

1  17  Edw.  IV.,  cap.  1 ;  3  Hen.  \T:I.,  cap.  9  ;  Stat.,  ii.  452,  517.  Henry 
wisely  gave  up  the  attempt  to  make  each  merchant  bring  home 
a  certain  amount  of  buUion  for  each  cargo  he  exported. 

'^  4  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  23  ;   Stat.,  ii.  546. 

3   19  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  5  ;   Stat.,  ii.  650-51. 

♦  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  373 ;  Pat.  6  Hen.  VII.,  pt.  i.,  m.  8,  7  d ; 
Report  on  MSS.  of  Lord  Middlelon  (Hist.  MSS.  Com.  1911),  p.  266, 
and  App.  pp.  614-17. 

*  See  the  complaints  recorded  in  the  Cely  Papers  {Camden  Soc), 
p.  159.  •  Andr6,  Annates,  p.  81. 


,  •     "v     ^.  ^'  -<    /■;  '■'    . 


'}^ 


^ 


.^^«^^?. 


i^ii:^;:^ 


COINAGE   OF   HENRV    VII 


1.     Gold — sovereign 
2      Silver — groat 


3      Silver — groat 

4.  Perkin  Warbeck  groat 


1485-1509]      COMMERCE    AND    INDUSTRY       191 

repress  the  activity  of  the  counterfeit  coiners,  and 
the  forging  of  foreign  as  well  as  of  English  coin  was 
mad£~SigB-  treason ,  Specif  efforts  were  made  to 
prevent  the  circulation  of  the  bad  Irish  coinage.^ 
Finally  an  Aot^f  loO^  dealt  with  the  whole  question 
in  a  statesmanlike'^'ay.  The  first  step  to  a  general 
reform  of  the  coinage  was  made  by  abandoning  the_ 
old  principle  that  light  or  clipped  coin  was  to  be 
accepted  at  its  face~'value.  The  new  law  enacted 
thal"^old  coins  were  only  to  be  accepted  when  jif 
full  weight.  Clipped  coins  were  to  be  refused^  and 
ncAv  coins  were  to  be  stamped  with  acircle  jround 
the  edge  to  prevent  clipping.-  The  reform  of  the 
silv^  coinage  did  n^t  go  so  far,  and  light  (though 
not  clipped)  silver  coins  were  to  be  accepted  if  they 
bore_the  royal  stamp.  A  proclamation  of  the  follow- 
ing year  made  the  clipping  of  coin  punishable  by 
death,  arid  a  false  coiner  was  hanged  at  Tyburn  as 
a  \yarning.^  Modern  coinage  may  be  said  to  begin 
in  this  reign,  the  sovereign  being  issued  for  the  first 
time  in  1490,''^and  the  shilling  in  1504."^  The  new 
coinage  has  been  described  as  "  the  best  specimen 
of  metallic  portraiture  coined  in  England  since  the 
time  of  Constantine."  * 

The  king's  reforming  hand  dealt  also  with  the 
standard  weights  and  measures,  which  were  in  a  state 
of  confiTsion^equal  to  tbat~of  the  coinage.     Several 

1  3  Hen.  VH.,  cap.  9 ;  4  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  18,  cap.  23  ;  Stat.,  ii.  518, 
541-2,  546.  JIuch  was  also  done  by  way  of  proclamation  and  Orders 
in  Council.     L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  372,  376,  377,  379. 

«  19  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  5  ;  Stat.,  ii.  650. 

»  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  379  ;   City  Chron.,  pp.  259-61. 

*  Traill,  Soc.  England,  ii.  685.  The  early  coinage  of  Henry  VII. 
has  the  seated  figure  of  the  king  robed  and  crowned  on  the  obverse 
and  the  Tudor  rose  on  the  reverse  ;  the  later  coinage  has  the  king's 
portrait  in  profile. 


192  HENRY    VII  [1486-1609 

statutes  were  passed  which,  Hke  many  others  before 
them,  declared  one  standard  to  be  obhgatory  through- 
out the  kingdom  ;  but,  unhke  the  earher  efforts,  they 
were  followed  up  by  practical  attempts  to  make  the 
standard  measures  known.  Metal  copies  of  them 
were  provided  for  distribution  by  the  members  of 
Parliament  to  their  boroughs,  and  in  many  ports 
King's  Beams  were  set  up.  Owing  to  the  increased 
power  of  the  central  government  the  laws  of 
Henry  VII.  were  carried  into  effect,  and  the  use 
of  the  authorised  measures  was  enforced.^ 

Henry  shared  the  general  dislike  of  usurv,  which 
was  regarded  as  a  striking  instance  of  an  attempt  to 
sacrifice  public  welfare  to  private  gain.  To  lend 
money  for  interest  was  looked  upon  as  a  heinous 
offence,  an  unchristian  attempt  to  obtain  profit  where 
no  profit  was  due,  by  speculating  in  a  "breed  of 
barren  metal."  Quite  early  in  the  reign,  in  1487,  an 
Act  was  passed  to  restrain  the  "  dampnable  bargayns 
groundyt  in  usurye,  colorde  by  the  name  of  neweCheve- 
saunce.  contrarie  to  the  la  we  of  naturell  justis,  to  the 
comon  hurt  of  this  land."  Usurious  bargains,  that 
is,  all  bargains  in  which  a  percentage  was  allowed 
for  the  use  of  money,  were  declared  void,  offenders 
being  subject  to  a  penalty  of  £100,  "  reservyng  to 
the  Church  the  correcion  of  their  soules  according  to 
the  lawes  of  the  same."  The  Chancellor  was  given 
jurisdiction  in  cities  and  boroughs,  and  justices  of 
the  peace  in  the  counties.  A  later  Act  dealt  wath 
the  same  subject,  and  also  forbade  loans  being 
secured  upon  land  by  way  of  a  rent-charge. ^ 

»  7  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  3  ;  11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  4  ;  12  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  5  ; 
Stat;  ii.  551-2,  570-3,  637-8.  Many  delinquents  who  used  false 
measures  were  brought  before  the  Star  Chamber.  See  Star  Chamber 
Cases  (Selden  Soc).  i.  69-71. 

»  3  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  6  ;  11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  8  ;  Stat.,  ii.  514-5,  574. 


1485-1509]     COMMERCE    AND    INDUSTRY       193 

In  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  we  may  see  the  begin- 
ning of  the  paternal  government  both  by  legislation 
and  ordinance  characteristic  of  the  Tudor  dynasty. 
There  are  many  examples  of  Parliamentary  rcgulg,- 
tion  of  prices,  the  theory  in  most  cases  being  that 
the  retail  traders  were  making  unfairly  large  profits  ;  ^ 
the  articles  affected  ranged  from  hats  and  caps  to 
long-bows,  the  price  of  these  latter  being  limited  to 
check  the  threatened  supersession  of  the  character- 
istic weapon  of  England  by  the  cross-bow.  ^  Parlia- 
ment had  long  ago  undertaken  the  responsibility  of 
regulating  wages,  and  in  1495  a  comprehensive 
measure  fixing  the  maximum  rates  and  ordering  the 
pa\Tnent  of  lower  rates  wherever  they  were  prevalent 
was  passed.  Subsequent  legislation  affords  evidence 
that  the  State  Avas  gradually  extending  its  sphere  of 
action.  Acts  of  Parliament  were  passed  regulating 
many  of  the  details  of  employment^  how  many  hours 
a  day  workmen  were  to  work,  how  long  they  were 
to~speri3~on  their  meals,  and  so  on_^  A  workman  who 
left  his  job  before  he  finished  it  was  to  go  to  prison 
for  a  month  and  pay  a  fine  of  £l,  and  hqlidaA's  were 
not  to  be  paid  for.^  Legislation  also  regulated  ap- 
prenticeship, forbidding  cards  and  dice  except  at 
Christmas,  and  so  forth.  Examples  of  the  active 
control  of  Parliament  over  the  conditions  of  industry 
might  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  Parliament  stepped 
in  to  prevent  manufacturers  singeing  their  fustians, 
to  arrange  the  details  of  the  leather  trade,  to  prescribe 

1  4  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  8,  cap.  9 ;  3  Hen.  VH.,  cap.  13 ;  19  Hen.  VII., 
cap.  4  ;  StM.,  ii.  521,  533-4,  649. 

*  11  Hen.  Yll.,  cap.  2,  cap.  22  ;  12  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  3  ;  Stat.,  ii. 
569,  585-6,  637.  The  Act  of  1497  cancelled  the  clauses  fixing 
maximiim  rates,  perhaps,  as  Dr.  Busch  suggests  (p.  265),  because 
wages  had  remained  so  stationary  that  the  clauses  were  no  longer 
necessarj'. 

N 


194  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

the  way  in  which  feather  beds  should  be  stuffed,  to 
compel  all  butchers,  except  those  of  Berwick  and 
Carlisle,  to  do  their  butchering  out  of  doors. ^  This 
minute  supervision  of  social  conditions  was  extended 
over  much  %vider  ground  later  in  the  reign,  when  the 
Crown  devised  machinery  for  controlling  the  craft 
gilds.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  by  the  end  of 
the  reign  the  influence  of  Henry  the  Seventh's  per- 
sonality touched  the  lives  of  his  subjects  at  almost 
every  point. 

Changes  in  the  standard  of  comfort  have  made 
it  difficult  to  estimate  the  social  conditions  of 
labour  in  the  reign.  In  some  respects  the  labourer 
was  very  well  off.  Working  eight  hours  a  day — the 
ordinary  length  of  a  working  day  in  the  fifteenth 
century — he  could  earn  two  or  three  shillings  a  day  ; 
house  rent  and  fuel  were  cheap,  and  the  average  cost 
of  necessaries  was  about  one-twelfth  of  their  cost 
to-day.  There  were  many  opportunities  for  amuse- 
ment, and  many  compulsory  holidays ;  ^  rural  sports 
and  pastimes  flourished,  and  nearly  every  parish  had 
gilds  or  fraternities  which  gave  dramatic  performances. 
Movement  from  place  to  place,  however,  was  diffi- 
cult, and  roads  and  bridges  were  much  neglected, 
suffering  from  the  decline  in  monastic  activity. 
England  was  ravaged  by  plague  several  times  during 
the  reign.  There  were  two  outbreaks  of  the  new  and 
mysterious  sweating  sickness  in  1485  and  1508,  which, 
beginning  in  London,  spread  over  the  rest  of  England. 
In    1499-1500    an    epidemic    of    the    more    familiar 

'  1  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  6;  4  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  3;  11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  27; 
19  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  19;  Stat.,  ii.  502-4,  527-8,  591,  663-4. 

*  The  gilds  made  stringent  rules  forbidding  working  on  Church 
festivals. 


1485-1509]     COMMERCE    AND    INDUSTRY       195 

plague  ^v^ought  great  havoc  in  London,  and  there 
were  less  serious  outbreaks  in  1487,  1503,  and  1504.^ 
The  chief  hardships  came  from  the  clashing  of  new 
ideas  and  old  habits.  The  old  tie  between  lord  and 
man  had  not  j^et  lost  the  personal  character  that 
made  the  master  feel  responsible  for  the  welfare  of 
his  dependants,  but  the  new  relations  between 
capital  and  labour  were  giving  a  changed  colour  to 
society  in  the  flourishing  industrial  districts.  In 
agriculture  and  industry  historic  methods  were  being 
abandoned. 

The  Crown  drew  to  itself  more  and  more  power. 
The  strange  thing  is  that  this  great  extension  of  State 
control  was  almost  uniformly  beneficent  in  effect,  as 
it  was  in  intention.  We  cannot  point  to  a  single  one 
of  Henry's  commercial  statutes  that  was  designed  to 
forward  any  selfish  interests  of  the  king  or  his 
advisers.  The  underlying  principle  of  all  the  indus- 
trial and  agrarian  legislation  was  to  provide  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  effective  population  upon  which 
all  national  ambitions  depended.  Idleness,  "  the 
cause  and  root  of  all  evil,"  the  parent  of  poverty  and 
crime,  was  the  bugbear  of  the  Tudor  statesmen.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  king's  aim  was  not  the  modern 
one  of  alleviating  the  lot  of  the  worker.  He  showed 
no  altruistic  desire  to  add  to  his  people's  happiness. 
Disorder  and  violence,  the  symptoms  of  economic 
disease,  were  kept  in  check,  but  the  root  of  the  disease 
lay  beyond  the  king's  reach  and  could  be  touched  by 
Time  alone.  Henry's  aim  was  to  make  his  kingdom 
strong  and  powerful,  and  the  happiness  of  the  mass 
of  the  people  found  no  place  in  this  robust  ideal. 

^  In  1497  there  was  an  outbreak  of  a  "  wonderful  sickness  called 
the  Spaynysh  pokkes."     City  Chronicle,  217. 


CHAPTER    VI 

FOREIGN    AFFAIRS,   1497-1503— MARRIAGE   ALLIANCES 

The  failure  of  Perkin  Warbeck's  attempt  removed  a 
thread  which  had  been  bound  up  in  the  tangled  web 
of  European  diplomacy  for  many  years.  For  the 
future  foreign  affairs  were  simpler  and  infinitely  easier 
for  the  king.  The  position  he  had  won  for  himself 
by  tireless  effort  in  the  face  of  a  dangerous  con- 
spiracy, supported  at  one  time  or  another  by  nearly 
all  the  royal  houses  of  Europe,  could  easily  be  main- 
tained and  improved  now  that  the  pretender  was 
defeated  and  his  supporters  discredited.  The 
dramatic  interest  lessens.  There  is  no  longer  the 
atmosphere  of  suspense,  the  straining  of  every  faculty 
to  win  from  a  reluctant  Europe  some  recognition  of 
the  power  and  influence  of  the  upstart  king  of  a 
weak  and  divided  nation.  Already,  by  years  of  toil 
and  anxiety,  the  Tudor  dynasty  was  rooted  in 
England,  and  England  had  been  given  a  place  in 
European  politics. 

Henry's  strength  and  prosperity  was  beginning  to 
attract  the  attention  of  foreign  observers,  and  had 
been  the  subject  of  some  comment  in  this  critical 
year  of  his  fortunes.  The  states  of  Venice  and  Milan 
both  realised  the  value  of  Henry's  friendship.  An 
ambassador  from  Venice,  Andrea  Trivisano,  was  de- 
spatched in  the  summer  of  1497  to  assure  Henry  of 
the    love   the   Signory   bore  him,   congratulate    him 

130 


1497]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  197 

on  his  "  very  great  successes,"  and  express  their  joy 
at  his  joining  the  Holy  League.  He  was  instructed 
"to  make  great  demonstrations  of  love  on  behalf  of 
the  Republic "  to  the  queen,  Morton,  and  Prince 
Arthur.  Further,  he  was  ordered  to  send  news  of 
England.  News  indeed  he  sent,  but  not  of  the  most 
reliable,  when  on  his  journey,^  but  as  soon  as  he 
reached  England  and  the  court  his  tone  changed. 
He  wrote  that  Henry's  rule  was  "to  be  considered 
much  strengthened  and  perpetual"  by  the  suppression 
of  the  disturbances.  "  The  kingdom  of  England," 
he  wrote,  "  has  never  for  many  years  been  so  obedient 
to  its  sovereign  as  it  is  at  present  to  his  Majesty  the 
king."  More  detailed  information  to  the  same  effect 
was  sent  by  the  Milanese  envoy.  He  reported  that 
Henry  was  "  admirably  well  informed  and  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  the  affairs  of  Italy."  Even  the 
courtiers  knew  so  much  about  Italian  affairs  that  he 
fancied  himself  at  Rome.  One  sentence  as  to  the 
state  of  affairs  in  England  towards  the  end  oi  this 
year  is  worth  quoting.  "  The  kingdom  is  perfectly 
stable  by  reason  first  of  the  king's  wisdom,  whereof 
every  one  stands  in  awe  ;  and  secondly,  on  account 
of  the  king's  wealth,  for  I  am  informed  that  he  has 
upwards  of  six  millions  of  gold,  and  it  is  said  that 
he  puts  by  annually  five  hundred  thousand  ducats." 
He  went  on  to  speak  of  Henry's  diplomatic  skill, 
that,  for  instance,  he  had  kept  the  French  ambassadors 
who  wished  to  visit  Scotland  in  England,  entertained 
them  magnificently,  and  sent  them  home  laden  with 
presents,  but  without  seeing  Scotland.  The  envoy 
commented  on  the  assistance  Papal  protection  had 
been  to  Henry ;  the  rebellious  Cornishmen  had  felt  the 

*  See  above,  p.  151. 


198  HENRY    VII  [1497 

efficacy  of  Papal  censures.  "All  who  eat  grain  garnered 
since  the  rebellion  or  drink  beer  brewed  with  this  year's 
crops,  die  as  if  they  had  taken  poison,  and  hence  it 
is  publicly  reported  that  the  king  is  under  the  pro- 
tection of  God  eternal."  ^  The  Spanish  ambassador, 
de  Ayala,  wrote  a  few  months  later  to  the  same  effect. 
He  reported  that  Henry's  crown  was  undisputed,  and 
that  he  was  complete  master  in  England,  observing 
with  some  insight  that  he  showed  a  desire  to  "  govern 
England  after  the  French  fashion."  The  settled 
policy  by  which  Henry  made  himself  the  first  of  a 
line  of  despots  did  not  escape  shrewd  observers.  The 
troubles  he  had  passed  through,  however,  had  already 
left  their  mark  upon  the  king.  "  The  king,"  wrote 
Ayala,  "  looks  old  for  his  years  but  young  for  the 
sorrowful  life  he  has  led." 

The  summer  of  1497  saw  also  the  departure  of  the 
Cabot  expedition. 2  This  setting  out  of  British  mer- 
chants for  unknown  seas  in  this  year  of  invasion  and 
tumult  emphasises  the  point  at  which  the  strife  be- 
tween medieval  and  modern  influences,  which  per- 
vades the  whole  reign,  began  to  incline  in  favour  of 
the  latter.  Henceforward  England  begins  to  look 
westward  with  her  spreading  commerce,  and  draw 
away  from  the  medieval  background  of  "  privy  con- 
spiracy and  rebellion," 

After  1497 — the  turning-point  of  the  reign  in  so 
many  spheres — foreign  politics  become  comparatively 
simple  and  stable.  Diplomacy  was  to  be  dominated 
for  many  years  by  the  attempts  of  the  kings  of 
France  and  Spain  to  win  the  alliance  of  England 
with  a  view  to  advancing  or  checking  French  designs 
in  Italy.     It  is  a  premature  sketch  of  the  system  of 

*  Brown,  Vcn.  Cal.,  No.  751.  -  See  below,  p.  320. 


1497]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  199 

the  "  balance  of  power  "  later  elaborated  by  Wolsey. 
The  outcome — after  many  waverings — was  the  com- 
pletion of  the  alliance  between  England  and  Spain 
which  lasted  for  forty  years  and  brought  such  weighty 
results. 

But  while  the  ultimate  issue  is  simple,  the  negotia- 
tions which  led  up  to  it  were  as  complex  as  ever,  and 
the  lack  of  dramatic  interest  is  heightened  by  the 
maze  of  trivialities,  and  the  wearisome  discussions  of 
foregone  conclusions  preserved  in  the  State  })apers.^ 
Already  in  1496  the  principle  of  a  marriage  alliance 
between  England  and  Spain  had  been  accepted  on 
both  sides,  but  many  years  were  still  to  be  spent 
bickering  over  the  princess's  marriage  portion,  the 
extent  of  the  English  lands  which  were  to  form  her 
dowry,  and  even  over  her  trousseau  and  jewels. 

In  negotiations  of  this  kind  Ferdinand  and  Henry 
were  very  fairly  matched.  In  both,  as  they  grew 
older,  a  habit  of  dealing  carefully  with  money  de- 
generated into  stinginess;  both  seemed  to  have  revelled 
in  an  atmosphere  of  squalid  haggling  fitter  for  the 
counter  of  a  pawnbroker  than  for  the  antechambers 
of  great  kings.  The  spirit  of  vulgarity  pervading 
these  negotiations  was  personified  in  de  Puebla,  the 
Spanish  ambassador,  who  lived  in  England  perma- 
nently from  1494  to  1509.  A  mean,  spiteful,  avari- 
cious man,  begging,  whining,  and  backbiting,  without 
a  shred  of  personal  pride  or  official  dignity,  he 
brought  his  high  ofRce  into  disrepute,  and  was  a  butt 
for  the  sneers  of  the  English  court.  One  of  his 
fellow-countrymen  reported  him  to  be  "  avaricious 
and  a  notorious  usurer,  an  enemy  of  truth,  full  of 
lies  and  a  calumniator  of  all  honest  men,  vainglorious 

'  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  vol.  i.  pp.  159-472 ;  Brown,  Ven.  Cal.,  vol.  i. 


200  HENRY    VII  [1497 

and  ostentatious.  It  is  generally  said  at  court  that 
de  Puebla  comes  a-begging.  He  is  often  glad  of 
the  bad  success  of  his  masters,"  This  unpleasant 
picture  was  not  a  bit  overdrawn.  The  ambassador 
of  Spain  lived  squalidly  in  a  "  vile  and  miserable 
inn  of  bad  repute,"  hanging  round  the  court  to  save 
himself  the  expense  of  meals,  though  he  made  large 
sums  by  taking  bribes  from  Spanish  merchants  to 
push  their  interests  with  the  English  king.  All  the 
time,  in  spite  of  his  deformity,  he  was  flattering  him- 
self with  the  hope  that  his  master  would  allow  him 
to  accept  the  English  bishopric  offered  liim  by  Henry, 
or  the  "  honourable  marriage "  with  a  wealthy 
English  bride  arranged  for  him  by  the  same  patron. 
It  seems  strange  that  the  power  and  dignity  of  Spain 
lay  so  long  in  these  unworthy  hands,  but  Henry  seems 
to  have  had  some  kind  of  affection  for  him,  and  to 
have  treated  him  with  singular  confidence.  His  pen 
describes  the  ambassador  as  "  industrious,  vigilant, 
and  true  and  adroit  in  all  negotiations  entrusted  to 
him,"  and  he  gave  him  many  marks  of  favom*. 

The  strong  persoiial  influence  exerted  by  all  the 
Tudors  brought  de  Puebla  early  under  Henry's  sway, 
and  a  keen  Spanish  observer  saw  that  his  popularity 
with  the  king  was  due  to  his  pliancy.^  His  absurd 
vanity  made  him  the  dupe  of  Henry's  flatteries.  His 
letters  to  Ferdinand  echoed  the  king's  opinions  and 
championed  his  point  of  view.  He  even  concealed 
important  news  from  his  master.  The  Spanish  mer- 
chants complained  bitterly  of  de  Puebla's  neglect  of 
their  interests,  and  asserted  that  he  deliberately  lost 
the  opportunity  of  wringing  commercial  concessions 
from  Henry  at  a  time  when  he  was  "  in  such  diffi- 
culties that  he  would  not  have  refused  the  half  of 

^  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  pp.  162-3. 


1497]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  201 

his  revenues  if  de  Puebla  had  asked  it."  His  de- 
spatches read  Hke  those  of  a  confidential  minister  of 
the  Enghsh  king  rather  than  of  a  Spanish  ambassador. 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  were  not  deceived.  As  early 
as  1498  they  suspected  that  "  de  Puebla  was  en- 
tirely in  the  interest  of  King  Henry."  One  of  their 
envoys,  Londono,  wrote,  "  He  is  in  such  subjection 
that  he  dares  not  say  a  word  but  what  he  thinks 
will  please  the  king.  .  .  .  He  is  a  great  partisan  of 
the  King  of  England."  But  it  was  convenient  for 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  to  have  an  agent  who  re- 
peated all  the  gossip  of  the  English  court,  and  they 
guarded  against  de  Puebla's  over  great  submission  to 
Henry  by  putting  delicate  negotiations  in  charge  of 
an  ambassador  of  a  much  higher  stamp,  who  became 
the  mark  for  de  Puebla's  jealous  railings.  He  had  not 
even  the  wit  to  conceal  his  jealousy  of  Ayala.  Bitter 
recriminations  against  him  fill  his  letters.  He  in- 
sinuated that  Henry  would  be  glad  if  Ayala  left  the 
country,  "  although  he  had  written  to  the  contrary,"  ^ 
and  proudly  boasted  about  his  own  great  influence 
over  Henry  and  the  "  wonders  "  he  performed  in  spite 
of  "  superhuman  difficulties."  Distrusted  and  despised 
by  both  Spaniards  and  English,  he  yet  remained  in 
England  in  nominal  control  of  all  the  negotiations 
between  the  two  countries  for  many  years. ^ 

Towards  the  end  of  1496  a  peaceful  tendency  had 

^  London  o's  report  of  Ayala  is  very  difierent.  He  was  on  good 
terms  with  the  king  and  the  whole  court,  and  was  the  only  man  in 
the  kingdom  who  really  knew  anything  about  Scotland,  "  all  others 
flying  into  a  passion  as  soon  as  the  name  of  Scotland  is  pronounced  " 
(ibid.,  p.  161).  He  reported  that  de  Puebla  was  the  cause  of  the 
disgraceful  scenes  between  the  two  ambassadors. 

^  See  Berg.,  Spanish  Col.,  passim,  especially  pp.  109,  112,  120,  135, 
146,  147,  148,  152,  155,  158,  189,  191,  195-7,  228,  232,  250,  277,  281, 
294;  Busch,  op.  cit.,  pp.  135,  351-2. 


202  HENRY    VII  [1497-8 

become  visible  in  Europe.  The  shadow  of  French 
ascendancy  in  Italy  passed  away  after  the  successes 
won  by  the  Spanish  infantry  in  the  kingdom  of 
Naples.  Now  that  the  danger  was  over  the  Holy 
League  was  ready  for  peace,  and  Spanish  successes 
in  the  Pjrenees  made  France  anxious  to  treat.  On 
27th  February  1496-7  a  truce  between  France  and 
Spain  was  made,  in  which  the  other  members  of  the 
League  were  included  shortly  afterwards.^  Henry 
was  prepared  to  go  further  than  this.  Peaceful  re- 
lations with  France  were  profitable  as  well  as  pleasant. 
In  May  1497  a  commercial  treaty  strengthened  the 
bond  between  the  two  countries.  Henry's  diplomacy 
had  ]iut  England  into  a  very  favourable  position. 
His  entrance  into  the  Holy  League  had  brought  him 
invaluable  help  in  the  most  anxious  year  of  his  reign. 
He  had  gained  the  prestige  of  an  alliance  blessed  by 
the  Pope,  but  his  obligations  under  it  had  been  merely 
nominal,  and  he  remained  a  defensive  member  of  an 
offensive  league.  One  power  alone  stood  in  the  way 
of  a  general  pacification.  Maximilian  remained 
obstinately  hostile  to  France,  and  on  the  sudden 
death  of  Charles  VIII.  of  France  (7th  April  1498), 
he  prepared  for  war.  The  League,  however,  made 
no  move  ;  he  dared  not  attack  France  without  an 
ally,  and  he  was  forced  to  swallow  liis  hatred  of 
Henry  and  make  overtures  for  his  alliance.  He 
worked  hard  to  revive  England's  grudge  against  her 
old  enemy,  suggested  the  recovery  of  the  lost  pro- 
vinces, and  promised  "  to  perform  wonders  in  the  war 
against  France."  Henry  was  not  to  be  drawn.  He 
had    seen   too   much   of   the    contrast    between    the 

1  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  pp.  118,  127-8,  142;  Busch,  p.  128,  note  2, 
giving  references  to  Zurits. 


1498]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  203 

promises  and  performances  of  the  King  of  the  Romans. 
He  did  not  conceal  the  fact  that  he  was  not  over-con- 
fident in  the  "  constancy,  veracity,  and  perseverance  " 
of  his  would-be  ally,  and  he  answered  with  ironical 
politeness  that  he  "  should  like  to  see  the  King  of 
the  Romans  at  war  with  France,  but  only  by  way  of 
witnessing  his  wonderful  feats,  and  not  in  order  to 
take  part  himself  in  the  enterprise."  ^     The  prospect, 
however,  of  seeing  Brittany  again  indej^endent  was 
alluring,  and  Henry  sent  spies  into  the  province  to 
see  whether  the  re%ival  of  national  spirit  in  Brittany 
would  lead  to  an  attempt  at  separation.     His  hopes 
were  disappointed.     The  new  King  of  France  lost  no 
time  in  securing  his  hold  upon  Brittany  by  divorcing 
his  own  wife  and  marrying  the  \^'idow  of  Charles  VIII. 
Amicable  relations  betNveen  England  and  France  were 
not  disturbed.     A  solemn  dirge  or  obsequy  was  sung 
in  St.  Paul's  Cathedi'al  for  the  dead  King  of  France. 
De  Puebla  tried  to  make  Henry  break  with  France, 
but  in  vain.     He  reported  to  his  master  that  owing 
to  the  tribute  paid  by  the  King  of  France  to  Henry, 
and  the  pensions  given  by  him  to  English  nobles, 
Henry  valued  his  friendship  more  than  the  whole  of 
the    Indies ;    the   new   King  of    France   had    shown 
every  wish  to  please  Henry,  had  undertaken  all  the 
obligations  of  his  predecessor,  the  pensions  and  so  on. 
On  14th  July  the  treaty  of  Etaples  was  confirmed  by 
Henr} 's  agents  in  Paris,  and  the  clause  relating  to 
rebels   was   made   more    binding   than   ever.^       The 
thunders  of  the  Papal  chair  were  invoked  on  either  of 

*  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  i.  p.  157. 

-  City  Chron.,  223;  Berg.,  Spanifih  Cat.,  151;  Excerpta  Historica, 
118;  Rymer,  xii.  681-95,  706-7,  710-12,  736-8,  762-5 ;  Biisch,  op.cit., 
p.  129. 


204  HENRY    VII  [1498 

the  parties  who  should  break  a  treaty  which  seemed 
to  bring  the  vision  of  universal  peace  in  sight.  The 
example  set  by  Henry  was  speedily  followed  in 
Europe.  On  2nd  August  the  Archduke  Philip  made 
peace  with  France  and  renounced  his  father's  claim 
to  the  duchy  of  Burgundy.  His  peaceful  attitude, 
very  popular  in  Flanders,  was  distasteful  to  Maxi- 
milian, who  was  carrying  on  hostilities  in  a  desultory 
way.  A  few  days  later,  Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  who 
had  been  the  brains  of  the  Holy  League,  also  came 
to  terms  with  France,  a  treaty  being  signed  at 
Marcoussis  on  5th  August.  Thus  the  whole  of 
Europe,  with  the  exception  of  Maximilian,  had  given 
guarantees  for  the  maintenance  of  peace,  and  even 
he  at  last  recognised  the  impossibility  of  the  position, 
withdrew  his  troops  and  made  peace  with  France,  in 
which  he  was  followed  by  Venice.  Thus  the  Holy 
League  broke  up.^ 

Meanwhile  the  Anglo-Spanish  negotiations  were 
revealing  a  much  firmer  attitude  on  Henry's  part  in 
spite  of  the  Perkin  Warbeck  complication.  By  the 
treaty  of  1st  October  1496  it  had  been  provided 
that  the  marriage  between  Arthur  and  Katherine 
should  take  place  when  the  prince  had  completed  his 
fourteenth  year,  that  Katherine's  marriage  portion 
was  to  consist  of  200,000  crowns  (4s.  2d.),  half  to  be 
paid  within  ten  days  of  the  marriage  and  the  re- 
mainder within  two  years.  The  last  quarter  might 
be  paid  in  plate  and  jewels.  The  dower  of  the 
Princess  of  Wales  was  to  consist  of  one-third  of  the 
revenues  of  Wales,  Cornwall,  and  Chester,  and  was 
to  be  increased  to  the  usual  amount  when  she  became 

*  Even  the  Duchess  Margaret  wrote  to  Henry  asking  for  pardon 
and  promising  obedience.     Berg.,  Spanish  CaL,  p.  196. 


1497]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  205 

Queen  of  England.  Her  rights  of  succession  in 
Castile  and  Aragon  were  saved,  and  a  separate 
document  signed  by  Henry  VII.  assured  the  suc- 
cession to  the  throne  of  England  to  Arthur's  children 
if  he  should  die  in  Henry's  lifetime.^  This  treaty  did 
not  completely  satisfy  Ferdinand.  It  contained  none 
of  the  commercial  concessions  he  hoped  for  and  did 
not  bind  Henry  to  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance 
with  Spain.  The  efforts  of  Spanish  diplomatists 
were  concentrated  upon  obtaining  some  modifica- 
tion of  the  treaty.  Ferdinand  first  tried  to  induce 
Henry  to  break  with  France  by  using  the  old 
lure  of  the  speedy  settlement  of  the  marriage.  But 
this  charm  no  longer  worked.  Henry,  well  aware 
that  the  marriage  had  now  been  definitely  decided  on 
by  the  Spanish  court,  became  less  eager  for  its  imme- 
diate because  he  felt  sure  of  its  ultimate  fulfilment. 
He  realised  the  strength  of  his  position,  and  even 
the  critical  events  of  the  year  1497  did  not  weaken 
his  attitude.  It  is  from  the  other  side  that  the 
flattering  expressions  come.  Isabella  writes  of  Henry 
as  "  a  prince  of  great  virtue,  firmness  and  constancy," 
and  hopes  for  a  more  intimate  friendship  with  him 
after  the  marriage. 

Ferdinand  seemed  bent  on  giving  every  proof 
of  his  friendly  feelings.  He  wrote  that  the  absence 
of  harmon}'  between  Henry  and  the  archduke 
weighed  on  his  mind;  he  welcomed  the  announce- 
ment of  his  intention  to  enter  the  Holy  League, 
forwarded  evidence  about  the  claims  of  the  Duke  of 
York,  and  ordered  de  Ayala  to  use  all  his  influence 
to  reconcile  Henry  and  James  of  Scotland.  Henry 
was  assured   that  by  the  marriage   of  the   Infanta 

1  Ihid.,  pp.  129,  130. 


206  HENRY    VII  [1497 

Jiiana  to  the  Archduke  Philip  he  would  have  hence- 
forth a  daughter  in  Flanders.^  Isabella  wrote  later 
that  she  "  confided  in  Henry  as  she  would  in  a 
brother."  ^  Henry's  firm  attitude  led  to  further 
concessions.  War  with  France,  the  original  object 
of  the  treaty,  which  had  been  strongly  urged  upon 
Henry  at  first,  was  dropped  when  it  appeared  that 
he  would  not  bind  himself.  The  treaty  was  too 
valuable  to  Ferdinand  to  be  jeopardised  by  obstinacj', 
and  in  January  1497  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  ratified 
it.  2  A  month  later  the  arrival  at  Southampton 
of  the  Princess  Margaret  of  Austria — she  was  on 
her  way  to  Spain  to  join  her  husband  and  was  driven 
in  by  bad  weather — gave  Henry  an  opportunity  of 
showing  his  friendship.  She  received  a  very  cordial 
letter  from  him.  "  The  arrival  of  his  own  daughter 
could  not  give  him  more  joy,"  he  wrote.  He  placed 
at  her  disposal  his  person,  his  realm,  and  all  that 
were  to  be  found  in  it.  They  were  not  to  spare 
him  and  his  realms,  for  they  would  render  him  a 
very  great  service  by  accepting  everything  from 
him.^ 

But  these  fair  words  did  not  augur  any  concession, 
and  it  was  not  until  July,  the  month  of  Perkin 
Warbeek's  adventure,  that  Henry  at  last  ratified 
the  marriage  treaty.*  The  betrothal  of  Arthur  and 
Katherine  took  place  a  month  later  by  proxy  at 
Woodstock,  where  the  court  was  established  for 
the  early  autumn. ^  The  Spanish  alliance  was  of 
immense  practical  value  during  this  year  of  difficulty, 

1  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  p.  124. 

^  Ibid.,  Nos.  167,  168.  '  Ibid.,  No.  173. 

*  Rymer,  xii.  658-66  ;   Berg.,  pp.  129-130. 

'  Ibid.,  Nos.  167-8,  and  p.  132. 


1498]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  207 

especially  in  the  Scotch  negotiations.^  Henry  re- 
ceived cordial  assurances  of  Spanish  support  at  the 
time  of  Warbeck's  landing  in  Cornwall.  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella  offered  to  despatch  a  fleet,  and  hailed 
the  defeat  of  the  adventurer  and  the  "  great  victory 
of  their  beloved  brother,  Henry,"  with  expressions 
of  apparently  sincere  delight,  announcing  that  "  they 
had  always  known  that  he  [Warbeck]  was  an  im- 
postor." ^  On  4th  February  1497-8,  the  treaty  was 
ratified  for  the  second  time  by  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella,^ and  in  July,  after  a  dispensation  had  been 
obtained  from  the  Pope,  Arthur  and  Katherine  were 
married  by  proxy  with  great  solemnity,  de  Puebla 
representing  the  princess.^  Henry  expressed  his  joy 
at  this  event  with  a  vigour  that  meant  a  great  deal 
from  a  man  of  his  unenthusiastic  temperament.  He 
swore  "  on  his  royal  faith  "  that  he  and  the  queen 
were  more  satisfied  with  this  marriage  than  with  any 
great  dominions  they  might  have  gained  with  the 
daughter  of  another  prince.  On  another  occasion 
Henry  laid  his  hand  on  his  heart  and  swore  "  by  the 
faith  of  his  heart,"  that  if  any  one  of  his  "  best  beloved 
subjects  said  anything  against  the  King  or  Queen  of 
Spain  he  would  not  esteem  him  any  longer."  He  and 
the  queen  had  a  playful  dispute  about  the  letters 
they  received  from  their  Spanish  "  brother  and 
sister."  Henry  professed  to  want  to  carry  them 
about  with  him  all  the  time,  but  the  queen  did  not 
wish  to  give   hers   up.^     Henry   and   the    Prince   of 

^  See  above,  pp.  144-5.  Henry  showed  his  gratitude  by  writing 
a  very  graceful  letter  to  the  Queen  of  Spain.  "  He  loved  them  so 
much,"  he  wrote,  "  that  it  is  impossible  to  imagine  a  greater  and 
more  sincere  affection."     Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  p.  146. 

2  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  i.  p.  147.  *  Ibid.,  No.  189. 

*  Ibid.,  pp.  148,  160,  168,  185,  190,  209-10.  *  Ibid.,  p.  190. 


208  HENRY    Vn  [1498 

Wales  both  wrote  personal  letters  to  Spain,  and  the 
king  sent  with  his  a  curious  gift — twenty-four 
"  blessed  rings,"  one  dozen  of  them  being  gold  and 
one  dozen  silver.  Several  young  Spanish  noblemen 
came  over  to  England  to  enter  the  Prince  of  Wales's 
service,  while  an  Englishman  was  recommended  for 
the  service  of  the  Princess  Katherine.^ 

In  the  midst  of  these  rejoicings  Henry  had  an  un- 
pleasant reminder  of  the  dangers  he  had  passed 
through.  On  June  9,  1498,  Perkin  Warbeck  escaped 
from  court.  He  fled  towards  the  coast,  but,  finding 
the  roads  watched,  took  refuge  in  the  monastery  at 
Sheen.  The  prior  interceded  with  the  king.  Perkin's 
life  was  spared,  but  the  king,  "  that  had  an  high 
stomach  and  could  not  hate  any  that  he  despised, 
bid  take  him  forth  and  set  the  knave  in  the  stocks." 
After  being  thus  publicly  humiliated,  and  repeating 
to  the  crowd  the  confession  formerly  made  to  the 
mayor  and  corporation,  he  was  taken  to  the  Tower, 
and  there  lodged  in  close  confinement,  "  so  that  he 
saw  neither  sun  nor  moon."  ^  The  rigour  of  his  im- 
prisonment had  such  an  effect  on  his  health  that  de 
Puebla,  who  was  present  a  few  months  later  at  an 
inter\'iew  between  Henry  and  the  Flemish  ambassa- 
dor, at  which  Perkin  appeared,  thought  that  his  days 
were  numbered. 

In  July  Henry  received  another  Spanish  envoy — 
Londono — ^vith  marked  cordiality.  "  The  king,"  we 
are  told,  "  made  a  remarkably  fine  speech  in  French," 
and  ]\Iorton  made  a  Latin  oration.  Henry  offered 
to  serve  Spain  with  his  person  and  with  his  army. 
"  He  said  it  with  words  which  manifested  great  love 

»  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  Nos.  229,  233. 

*  Ibid.,  pp.  162,  156,  185-6;  City  Chron.,  p.  223 ;  Hall,  488-9. 


1498]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  209 

and  affection."  ^  De  Puebla  reported  Henry's  wish 
that  the  Princess  Katherine  should  talk  French  to 
the  Archduchess  Margaret  so  that  she  might  be  able 
to  speak  the  language  fluently  when  she  came  to 
England,  '"  as  the  English  ladies  could  not  speak 
Latin,  much  less  Spanish."  The  princess  was  also 
advised  to  accustom  herself  to  drink  wine.  "  The 
water  of  England  is  not  drinkable,"  wrote  de  Puebla, 
"  and  even  if  it  were  the  climate  would  not  allow  the 
drinking  of  it." 

On  10th  July  a  supplementary  treaty  of  alliance 
between  England  and  Spain  was  signed.  The 
articles  dealing  with  commerce  and  the  harbouring 
of  rebels  had  been  slightly  altered,  and  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  complained  that  de  Puebla  had  shown  him- 
self very  neglectful  of  their  interests,  and  that  he  had 
exceeded  the  powers  given  to  him ;  they  expressed  their 
anger  and  astonishment,  and  ordered  him  to  follow 
their  instructions  "without  transgressing  a  single  word 
for  the  future."  He  was  to  consult  Ayala  in  all  things, 
and  regard  him  as  joint  ambassador  at  the  court. ^ 

But  at  this  moment,  in  ominous  contrast  to  the 
general  atmosphere  of  success  and  self -congratulation, 
the  darker  thread  that  was  never  long  absent  from 
the  tangled  skein  of  Henry's  life  reappeared. 

The  name  and  claims  of  the  young  Earl  of  War- 
wick, who  had  been  dragging  out  his  miserable  life 
in  the  Tower,  sprang  into  sudden  prominence  through 
the  appearance  of  another  impostor.  An  Augustinian 
friar,  one  Patrick,  persuaded  Ralph  Wilford,  a  boy  of 

*  Berg.,  Spanish  Col.,  i.  pp.  154^6. 

*  The  treaty,  however,  was  confirmed  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 
on  20th  January  1500.  Rymer,  xii.  741-7  ;  Berg.,  Spanish  Col., 
pp.  210-12. 

O 


210  HENRY    VII  [1499 

mean  birth  who  was  a  favourite  pujjil,  to  jiersonate 
the  imprisoned  carl,  ])romising  "  that  he  would  easily 
make  him  King  of  England."  Though  this  plot  was 
hatched  in  Kent,  which  had  a  reputation  for  sup- 
porting "  phantastical  fantasyes,"  it  failed  ignomini- 
ously.  The  king's  spies  got  wind  of  it.  The  friar's 
miserable  dupe  was  hanged  on  Shrove  Tuesday  (12th 
February  1498-9),  but  Patrick,  owing  to  the  benefit 
of  clergy,  escaped  with  perpetual  imprisonment.^ 

The  plot,  a  slight  thing  in  itself,  had  weighty 
results.  The  reappearance  of  the  spectre  of  con- 
spiracy had  shaken  Henry's  growing  confidence.  His 
Celtic  blood  inclined  him  to  belief  in  prevalent  super- 
stitions. In  March  1499  he  consulted  a  priest  who 
was  reputed  to  l)e  a  seer,  and  who  had  foretold  the 
deaths  of  Edward  IV.  and  Richard  III.  Henry  asked 
him  in  what  manner  his  end  would  come,  and  the 
answer  that  his  life  would  be  in  great  danger  all 
through  the  year,  and  that  the  kingdom  harboured 
political  plots,  seems  to  have  made  a  deep  impression 
on  the  king.  Ayala  reported  that  these  two  weeks 
had  aged  him  so  that  he  looked  twenty  years  older. 
He  was  growing  very  devout,  and  had  heard  a  sermon 
every  day  during  Lent.^  Though  the  court  was  gay 
with  rejoicings  over  the  birth  of  another  prince, 
though  ambassadors  from  France  had  just  brought 
loving  messages  and  presents  from  Louis  XII.,  and 
though  the  long  dispute  with  Flanders  had  just  been 
settled  by  the  treaty  of  May  1499,^  the  king  himself 
was  ill  at  ease. 

1  City  Chron.,  p.  225.  The  boy's  body  was  left  hanging  on  the 
gallows  until  the  following  Saturday  night  as  a  warning  to  the 
people. 

2  Berg.,  Spanish  Col.,  i.,  No.  239.  *  See  above,  p.  168. 


1499]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503         211 

Another  cause  of  alarm  was  the  flight  of  Edmund 
de  la  Pole,  Earl  of  Suffolk,  a  nephew  of  Edward  IV., 
who  in  spite  of  his  brother's  rebellion  ^  had  been  re- 
stored by  Henry  to  a  portion  of  the  family  estates. 
He  had  glittered  in  court  tournaments,  and  won  some- 
thing of  Henry's  favour,  but  the  king's  generosity 
failed  to  win  allegiance.  In  the  summer  of  1499, 
Suffolk,  offended  at  being  indicted  for  a  manslaughter, 
fled  to  Calais  and  thence  to  St.  Omer.  Henry  feared 
that  he  would  put  himself  under  the  archduke's  pro- 
tection, and  actually  sent  envoys  to  ask  him  to  return. 
He  assented  and  returned  to  court.  Henry's  patience 
seemed  inexhaustible.  ^ 

But  some  little  time  elapsed  before  the  danger  that 
seemed  to  be  weighing  on  the  king's  spirits  came  to 
a  head.  If  Henry  really  believed,  as  he  appears  to 
have  done,  that  a  great  plot  was  being  matured,  he 
may  have  regarded  the  Spanish  marriage  as  a  bul- 
wark against  the  threatened  danger.  Arrangements 
for  it  were  pushed  on,  and  a  second  proxy  marriage 
between  Katherine  and  Arthur  took  place  at  Bewdley, 
Prince  Ai'thur's  Herefordshire  seat,  on  Whit  Sunday, 
19th  May  1499. ^  The  prince,  "  in  a  loud  and  clear 
voice,"  expressed  his  joy  in  contracting  this  mar- 
riage "  not  only  in  obedience  to  the  Pope  and  to 
King  Henry,  but  also  from  his  deep  and  sincere  love 

1  John,  Earl  of  Lincoln,  had  been  slain  at  Stoke  1487.  His  father, 
Jolin,  Duke  of  Suffolk,  died  in  1491,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son 
Edmund,  who  in  consequence  of  his  comparative  poverty  waa 
restored  to  the  rank  of  Earl,  not  Duke  of  Suffolk. 

-  Rot.  Parl.yvL  474r-7,  546;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  F//.,  Intro,  xxxix., 
i.  129-134,  392,  394-8,  ii.  377  ;  City  Chron.,  p.  201 ;  Brown,  Ven.  Cal., 
Nos.  795-6.  Gairdner  and  Busch  have  corrected  Polydor  Vergil's 
errors.  See  Busch,  p.  363,  and  the  note  by  Dr.  Gairdner,  p.  441,  as 
to  the  order  of  these  events.  *  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  pp.  209-10. 


212  HENRY    VII  [U90 

lor  the  princess  his  wife,"  and  thereupon  his  lord 
chamberlain  joined  the  hands  of  Prince  Arthur  and 
de  Puebla,  who  again  stood  proxy  for  Katherine. 

Before  the  end  of  the  year  England  was  ringing 
with  the  news  of  another  desperate  Yorkist  plot. 
The  very  name  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick  seemed  to 
have  power  to  throw  the  black  shadow  of  conspiracy 
and  dethronement  across  the  king's  path,  and  it  was 
this  constant  anxiety,  working  on  a  mind  darkened 
by  superstitious  terrors  and  the  recent  sinister  revela- 
tions of  underground  conspiracy,  which  explains, 
though  it  cannot  justify,  the  judicial  murder  which 
stains  the  king's  reputation.  The  king's  long  patience 
gave  way  at  last,  and  the  mere  rumour  of  a  plot 
between  Warbeck  and  Warwick  sealed  the  fate  of 
both.  No  one,  reading  the  brief  account  of  the  con- 
spiracy that  survives,  can  doubt  that  the  earl  was 
condemned  on  trumped-up  evidence.  His  dangerous 
name  outweighed  his  youth  and  innocence. 

The  evidence  given  at  the  Guildhall,  probably  by 
one  Robert  Cleymound,  who  seems  to  have  turned 
informer,  1  was  to  the  effect  that  the  Earl  of  Warwick, 
with  Astwood,  a  former  adherent  of  Warbeck's,  and 
Cleymound,  while  in  the  Tower,  on  the  2nd  of  August 
"  confederated  and  agreed  that  the  earl  should  assume 
the  royal  dignity  and  elect  himself  king,  and  falsely 
and  traitorously  depose,  deprive,  and  slay  the  king." 
Subsidiary  evidence  w  as  given  to  the  effect  that  the 
earl  had  plotted  to  seize  the  Tower  and  carry  away 
the  jewels  from  the  king's  treasury,  issue  a  public  pro- 
clamation promising  12d.  a  day  to  any  one  who  joined 

^  In  spite  of  his  share  in  the  plot  Cleymound  was  afterwards 
pardoned.    Busch,  op.  cit.,  i.  120. 


1499]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    U97-1503         213 

him,    set  fire  to   the  gunpowder   stored   within   the 
Tower,  and  then  escape  beyond  the  seas  in  the  con- 
fusion and  bide  his  time  to  dethrone  the  king.     A 
certain  Thomas   Ward,   clerk,  was   alleged   to   have 
been  won  over  to  the  plot  by  Robert  Cleymound, 
who  showed  him  a  wooden  image  as  a  token  from 
Warwick.     Cleymound  also  declared  that  he  had  re- 
ceived a  cloak  and  a  velvet  jacket  from  the  earl. 
It  has  been  suggested  that  these  objects,  which  seem 
to  be   very  clumsily  dragged  into  the   story,   were 
meant  to  be  exhibited  as  tangible  proofs  of  a  guilt 
that  apparently  rested  only  on  the  evidence  of  an 
informer,  but  the  jury  found  the  proof  sufficient,  and 
sent  the  earl  for  trial  by  his  peers.     The  character 
of  some  further  evidence,  which  attempted  to  impli- 
cate Warwick  in  a  treasonable  league  with  Perkin 
Warbeck,   throws  still  more  doubt  upon  the  earl's 
guilt.     It  was  alleged  that  Warwick  had  conspired 
on  August  2nd  "  to  set  him  (Peter  Warbeck)  at  large 
and  create  and  constitute  him,  the  said  Peter,  to  be 
King  and  Governor  of  England."     This  obviously  con- 
flicts with  the  assertion  that  on  the  same  August  2nd 
Warwick   concocted   a  plan  to  make  himself  king. 
The  informer  did  not  prove  that  Warwick  and  War- 
beck ever  saw  each  other  ;    the  story  was  that  the 
earl  knocked  upon  the  floor  of  his  chamber  in  the 
Tower  and  said  to  Warbeck,  who  was  confined  in  the 
cell  below,  "  Perkin,  be  of  good  cheer  and  comfort." 
Cleymound,  who  from  his  freedom  of  access  to  both 
prisoners  seems  to  have  been  a  warder  in  the  Tower, 
promised  to   hand   Perkin   on  the   following  day  a 
letter   from   an   adherent,    "  one   James,   a   clerk   of 
Flanders."     According  to  the  informer's  story,   the 
earl,  two  days  later,  made  a  hole  in  the  floor  of  his 


214  HENRY    VII  [1499 

chamber  by  which  he  could  communicate  with  Perkin, 
but  the  only  purpose  for  which  he  undertook  the 
considerable  feat  of  overcoming  the  massive  masonry 
of  the  Tower — in  the  course  of  a  single  day,  be  it 
remembered — was  "  to  comfort  the  said  Perkin  in 
his  treason  by  saying  to  him,  '  How  goes  it  with  you  ? 
Be  of  good  cheer.'  "  ^ 

This  lame  story,  with  a  few  other  adornments,  the 
suggestion  that  Perkin  had  accused  his  fellow-con- 
spirators to  the  king  and  council,  and  so  on,  bears  on 
the  face  of  it  the  secret  motive  of  the  whole  busi- 
ness— to  involve  the  last  heir  of  the  House  of  York 
and  the  impostor  who  had  plaj^ed  the  part  of  the 
White  Rose  in  a  common  ruin. 

On  21st  November  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  then 
aged  twenty-one,  was  brought  to  trial  before  the 
Lord  High  Steward,  the  Earl  of  Oxford,  who  pre- 
sided over  a  court  formed  of  the  Duke  of  Bucking- 
ham, the  Earls  of  Northumberland,  Kent,  Surrey, 
and  Essex,  sixteen  barons,  and  the  Prior  of  St. 
John  of  Jerusalem.  He  pleaded  guilty  and  was 
condemned  to  death  as  a  traitor.  Perkin  Warbeck, 
John  W^alter  alias  Attwater,  formerly  Mayor  of  Cork, 
and  his  son,  and  James  Taylor  had  been  condemned 
to  death  previously,  but  the  sentence  was  only 
carried  out  on  Warbeck  and  Attwater.  On  the 
scaffold  at  Tyburn  Perkin  confessed  liis  guilt,  and 
after  telling  the  story  of  his  imposture  to  the  assembled 
multitude,  he  "  took  his  dethe  meekly."  His  head 
was  cut  off  after  death  and  set  upon  London  Bridge. 
The  meteoric  career  of  the  White  Rose  was  over.  In 
Bacon's  words,  "  It  was  one  of  the  longest  plays  of 
the   kind   that   hath   been   in   memory,    and   might 

»  Baga  de  Secretis,  Thirty-seventh  Report  of  Deputy  Keeper. 


1499]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  215 

perhaps  have  had  another  end  if  he  had  not  met 
with  a  king  both  wise,  stout,  and  fortunate." 

The  romantic  career  of  the  adventurer  is  full  of 
contrasts.  Gay  and  self-confident,  he  had  played  his 
role  so  long  that  he  had  almost  come  to  believe  in 
it  himself.  His  personal  charm  had  won  him  love 
and  loyalty,  he  had  fraternised  with  princes  and 
borne  himself  royally  in  pageant  and  banquet.  But 
his  princely  and  gallant  bearing  deserted  him  in 
danger.  Twice  at  least,  in  a  critical  hour,  he  failed 
those  who  trusted  and  followed  him,  and  fled  to 
shameful  safety.  The  lack  of  personal  courage  was 
fatal.  He  had  matched  himself  against  a  crowned 
adventurer  whose  early  career  had  been  as  difficult 
and  almost  as  romantic  as  his  own,  whose  calculating 
brain  and  iron  nerve  were  never  more  at  his  service 
than  when  rebellion  and  invasion  threatened  the 
crown  he  had  won  on  the  battlefield. 

On  the  following  Thursday  (28th  November),^  be- 
tween two  and  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  War- 
wick was  executed  on  Tower  Hill.  The  king  paid 
the  expenses  of  the  funeral,  and  the  earl's  body  was 
taken  by  water  to  Bisham  Abbey  in  Berkshire,  and 
buried  there  with  his  ancestors. ^  Thus  did  the 
"  winding  ivy  of  a  false  Plantagenet  kill  the  true 
tree  itself." 

An  attempt  has  been  made  to  defend  Warwick's 
execution  on  the  score  of  policy.     It  is  alleged  that 

^  The  City  Chron.,  p.  228,  gives  the  date  incorrectly  as  29th 
November. 

^  Of  the  eight  other  conspirators  indicted,  four  were  condemned 
to  death,  but  only  two  were  executed.  For  the  plot  see  City  Chron., 
pp.  226-8  ;  Hall,  491  ;  Pol.  Verg.,  609  ;  Baga  de  Secretis,  Thirty- 
seventh  Report  of  Deputy  Keeper,  216-8  ;  Plumpton  Corresp.,  141-2  ; 
Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  p.  213  ;  Excerpta  Hiatorica,  p.  123  ;  Busch, 
op.  cit.,  349-50. 

N. 


216  HENRY    VII  [i499 

Henry  was  induced  to  get  rid  of  Warwick  by  the 
urgent  representations  of  the  Spanish  ambassador,  who 
dwelt  on  his  master's  rekictance  to  allow  his  daughter 
to  marry  the  heir  to  a  throne  constantly  threatened  by 
the  survival  of  a  prince  of  another  royal  house. ^ 
According  to  this  view  Warwick  was  sacrificed  by 
Henry  as  the  price  of  the  Spanish  marriage. 

But  what  is  the  evidence  for  this  view  ?  There  is 
not  a  shred.  There  is  no  trace  of  or  allusion  to  a 
communication  of  the  kind.  The  whole  story  seems 
to  have  been  evolved  from  the  exulting  words  of  de 
Puebla  "  that  not  a  doubtful  drop  of  royal  blood 
remained  in  England,"  from  Katherine's  lamentation 
many  years  later  over  the  marriage  that  had  begun 
in  blood,  and  from  the  coincidence  in  point  of  time 
between  the  execution  and  the  marriage.  But  these 
are  slender  foundations  on  which  to  build  a  theory 
inherently  imi)robable.  It  does  not  even  square  with 
the  general  view  that  Henry  was  an  unscrupulous 
politician  who  would  commit  any  crime  for  gain,  a 
view  that  calls  for  proof  that  the  marriage  depended 
in  some  way  upon  Warwick's  remov^al.  Of  such  a 
connection  there  is  no  trace.  The  marriage  had  longr 
been  decided  upon  by  the  Spanish  court,  the  delay 
came  from  Henry's  side,  and  there  is  no  evidence  of 
any  pressure  being  put  upon  him.  If  policy  dictated 
the  crime  at  all,  a  more  plausible  ex})lanation  would 
be  that  Henry  felt  that  his  throne  was  insecure  as 
long  as  Warwick  lived.  He  had  tried  generosity  to 
liis  captive  foes  and  found  it  a  failure.     Extraordinary 

1  Hall,  p.  491 ;  Gairdner,  Henry  VII.,  p.  174  ;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII., 
i.  113.  See  Busch  criticising  tliis  theory,  p.  354.  Bacon's  hint 
(p.  179),  that  Henry  found  in  the  alleged  Spanisli  representations  a 
pretext  for,  rather  than  a  motive  of,  the  execution,  is  another 
variation. 


1500]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503         21T 

patience,  considering  the  traditions  of  threatened 
d>Tiasties,  marked  Henry's  treatment  of  conspiracy. 
But  even  this  is  an  insufficient  explanation  of  the 
sudden  cruelty  that  claimed  a  life  spared  in  much 
more  dangerous  crises.  The  execution  of  Warwick 
was  not  an  exhibition  of  inhuman  calculation  but 
of  human  weakness.  Henry's  temper  was  altering. 
'•  Age  was  fatal  to  the  Tudor  despots  "  ;  his  naturally 
calm  and  judicial  spirit  was  being  warped  by  con- 
stant threats,  and  by  the  suspicions  of  premature  old 
age.  It  was  no  monster  chuckling  over  the  profit 
of  premeditated  murder,  but  a  terror-stricken  man 
driven  to  a  sudden  act  of  cruelty  by  anxiety  and  over- 
strain, who  signed  the  warrant  for  Warwick's  execu- 
tion.    Panic,  not  policy,  drove  the  king  on  to  crime. 

The  Anglo-Spanish  negotiations  of  the  year  1500 
are  more  than  usually  wearisome.  The  arrival  of 
Princess  Katherine  in  England  was  expected.  Prince 
Arthur  had  written  in  October  1499  expressing  his 
anxiety  to  see  his  bride,  and  the  king  was  spending 
enormous  sums  in  preparing  for  her  reception.  But 
several  things  delayed  her  departure.  Ferdinand 
made  the  sudden  discovery,  on  comparing  the  earlier 
with  the  later  marriage  treaty,  that  the  latter  was 
less  favourable  to  Spain  instead  of  much  more 
favourable,  as  de  Puebla  had  often  assured  him  it 
was.  He  declared  that  many  of  the  conditions  had 
been  altered  to  suit  Henry's  \-iews,  and  hoped  that 
they  might  still  be  modified  in  spite  of  the  number  of 
times   the  treaty  had  been  ratified  on  both  sides. ^ 

^  The  fact  that  the  careful  Ferdinand  never  made  the  discovery 
before  seems  almost  incredible,  but  it  rests  on  good  authority.  It 
may  have  been  a  manoeuvre  to  keep  de  Puebla  properly  submissive 
by  putting  him  in  the  wrong.  Berg.,  Spanisli  Cal.,  Nos.  23G-7,  248, 
250-2,  254,  2btt. 


218  HENRY    VII  [1500 

De  Puebla,  too,  sent  reports  that  made  Ferdinand  un- 
easy. Perhaps  with  a  view  of  emphasising  his  heroic 
achievements  he  rcjiorted  that  the  feehng  in  England 
was  hostile  to  the  Spanish  match,  and  that  he  and 
the  Bishop  of  London  had  had  infinite  difficulty  in 
getting  the  council  to  agree  to  the  treaty  of  alliance. 
Members  of  the  council  objected  to  the  omission  of 
the  words  "  King  of  France  "  from  the  king's  style 
in  letters  from  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  and  vied 
with  one  another  in  pointing  out  difficulties  in  the 
treaty  until  Henry  called  them  to  order  and  told 
them  to  stop  disputing  about  words.  The  suspicious 
Ferdinand  took  alarm,  and  his  fears  were  increased 
by  the  rumour  that  Henry  was  seriously  considering 
a  match  between  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  a  French 
princess.  On  Friday,  8th  May,  Henry  and  the  queen 
left  England  suddenly  for  Calais.  No  one  knew  of 
their  intention  until  a  day  or  two  before  they  started, 
and  there  was  much  speculation  in  diplomatic  circles 
as  to  the  motive  of  the  visit.  A  French  ambassador 
came  to  Calais  to  pay  his  respects  to  the  king  and 
bring  an  instalment  of  the  tribute,  and  on  Friday  in 
Whit  week  Henry  had  an  interview  with  the  Arch- 
duke Philip  at  a  church  in  the  fields.  "  The  interview, 
which  was  splendid  and  solemn,  was  very  cordial.  .  .  . 
The  archduke  said  that  he  loved  Henry  and  regarded 
him  as  his  protector."  ^  Henry,  much  flattered,  made 
a  suitable  reply.  The  king  stayed  a  month  in  Calais 
before  returning.  The  meeting  with  the  archduke 
made  Ferdinand  suspect  some  manoeuvre  of  Maxi- 
milian's with  a  view  of  substituting  the  Princess 
Margaret  of  Austria  for  the  Princess  Katherine  as  a 
bride  for  the  Prince  of  Wales.     Therefore,  while  he 

»  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  No.  268. 


1500]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  219 

concealed  his  suspicions  in  letters  to  de  Puebla, 
Fuensalida  was  despatched  on  a  special  mission  to 
England  to  see  whether  there  was  any  truth  in  the 
rumour  of  another  marriage,  and  instructed  to  keep 
a  close  watch  on  de  Puebla,  who  was  said  to  be 
entirely  under  Henry's  influence.  De  Puebla  was 
brimming  over  with  self-satisfaction  at  achieving  "  a 
masterpiece  of  diplomacy,"  when  making  the  final 
arrangements  for  the  marriage,  and  gave  a  variety 
of  reasons  for  his  delay  — "  the  absence  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  the  Great  Seal  being  kept  at 
Westminster,  the  absence  of  the  king  and  queen 
in  Calais,  the  fact  that  the  Latin  secretary  was 
suffering  from  ague,  that  the  third  son  of  the  king 
had  died,  and  that  he  himself  was  suffering  great 
pain."  1  Fuensalida's  report  was  not  reassuring. 
He  certainly  thought  the  match  was  in  some  danger, 
and  repeated  de  Puebla's  remark  that,  "  judging  by 
the  national  character,  it  was  quite  likely  that  the 
English  had  changed  their  minds."  ^ 

All  this  seems  to  have  been  a  cobweb  spun  from 
the  suspicious  brains  of  the  Spaniards.  Preparations 
for  the  marriage,  then  expected  in  August,  were 
going  on  all  over  England,  and  Henry  was  spending 
large  sums  on  jewels  and  so  forth.  But  Ferdinand 
could  not  get  rid  of  his  suspicions.  Various  excuses 
were  made  to  delay  Katherine's  departure,  and 
Ferdinand  announced  that  he  wished  the  marriage 
ceremony,  already  twice  performed,  to  be  repeated 
as  soon  as  the  prince  had  completed  his  fourteenth 
year.^     Henry   thought  the  third  repetition   of  the 

*  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  No.  268.  The  alliision  is  to  the  death  of 
Prince  Edmund  in  the  summer.  ^  Ihid.,  pp.  235-8. 

^  Arthur's  birthday  was  22nd  September,  so  this  stipidation 
meant  a  delay  until  the  following  spring. 


220  HENRY    VII  [1500 

ceremony  unnecessary,  but  gave  way  to  de  Puebla's 
representations,  and  the  marriage  took  place  at 
Ludlow  Castle,  the  Prince  of  Wales's  seat,  on 
22nd  November,  the  Bishop  of  Worcester  officiating. 
De  Puebla,  as  proxy  of  the  princess,  was  placed  at 
table  above  the  Prince  of  Wales  on  his  right  hand. 
INIore  respect  was  paid  to  him  than  he  had  ever  before 
received  in  his  life — he  told  his  master.  Disputes 
about  the  size  of  Katherine's  Spanish  household  fol- 
lowed. The  list  had  been  drawn  up  on  a  generous 
scale,  as  it  was  anticipated  that  Henry  would  pay 
the  salaries,  1  but  the  council  were  violently  opposed 
to  her  bringing  so  many  Spanish  gentlemen  and  men- 
servants  with  her,  and  specially  "  abhorred  "  the 
idea  of  the  Majordomo  or  Lord  Steward.  Henry 
declared  that  the  number  was  unnecessarily  large. 
"  The  princess,"  he  wrote,  "  will  be  better  and  more 
respectfully  attended  by  English  ladies  and  gentle- 
men than  ever  princess  has  been  served  before,"  De 
Puebla  reported  that  the  king  and  queen  wished  very 
much  that  the  ladies  who  were  to  accompany  the 
Princess  of  Wales  should  be  "  of  gentle  birth  and 
beautiful,  or  at  least  that  none  of  them  should  be 
ugly,"  The  Spanish  ambassador  was  still  oppressed 
by  the  "  nightmare "  of  trying  to  induce  Henry  to 
accept  35,000  crowns  worth  of  the  plate  and  jewels 
the  princess  was  bringing  with  her  as  the  first  instal- 

1  The  household  was  to  include  four  ladies-in-waiting  and  their 
serv'ants,  six  maids  of  honoiu",  and  two  slaves  to  attend  them,  a 
majordomo,  a  master  of  the  ceremonies,  a  cupljearer,  a  "  master 
of  the  hall,"  a  secretary-,  a  confessor,  an  almoner,  two  chaplains,  six 
pages,  a  chief  butler,  marshal,  and  warden  of  the  chapel,  three 
gentlemen-in-waiting,  four  equerries,  two  squires,  a  laundress, 
housemaids  and  fourteen  other  serv'^ants.  Dofia  Eh-ira  Manuel 
(who  later  played  an  important  part  in  Katherine's  story)  was  at 
the  head  of  the  household.     Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  No.  288. 


1501]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS  :    1497-1503  221 

ment  of  the  marriage  portion,  an  interpretation  of 
the  treaty  which  Henry  was  not  disposed  to  accept. 
There  is  a  very  interesting  letter  from  Isabella  to 
Henry,  -written  on  23rd  March  1500-1,  expressing  her 
gratification  at  hearing  of  the  splendid  preparations 
that  were  being  made  for  her  daughter's  reception. 
Though  she  delighted  in  them  as  signs  of  the  magnifi- 
cent grandeur  of  her  brother  Henry, ^  she  ardently 
implored  him  that  her  daughter  should  not  be  the 
cause  of  expense  but  of  happiness  to  England,  and 
that  the  substantial  part  of  the  festival  should  be 
Henry's  love  for  his  true  daughter.^ 

Henry's  suggestion  that  the  princess  should  land 
at  Gravesend  was  not  favoured  by  Isabella,  who  pre- 
ferred Southampton  or  Bristol,  as  safer  harbours. 
In  spite  of  the  100,000  nobles  spent  in  vain  prepara- 
tions the  year  before,  still  greater  efforts  were  being 
made.  Tournaments  and  meetings  of  the  Knights 
of  the  Round  Table  were  arranged,  and  distinguished 
foreigners  were  invited  over  to  witness  the  celebra- 
tions.^ The  young  Duke  of  York  went  to  Southamp- 
ton to  superintend  preparations  for  her  reception. 
At  last,  on  21st  May,  after  further  delay  caused  by 
another  rising  of  the  Moors  and  a  low  fever  from 
which  she  was  only  just  recovering,  Katherine  left 
Granada.  Owing  to  the  heat,  she  travelled  by 
very  slow  stages,  and  did  not  reach  Corunna  until 
the  middle  of  July.  On  August  25  she  embarked, 
but  was  driven  back  by  storms  and  hurricanes.  She 
disembarked  at  Laredo,  waiting  for  more  favourable 

*  Henry  bad  been  pressing  for  the  use  of  this  style. 
«  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  i.  No.  293. 

»  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.   404-17,  ii.   103-5  ;   Hardwicke  Papers, 
i.  1-20. 


222  HENRY    VII  [1501 

weather.  On  Monday,  27th  September,  the  fleet 
again  sailed.  Henry,  hearing  of  her  unfortunate  ex- 
perience, had  sent  one  of  his  ablest  captains  to  look 
out  for  the  })rincess  and  convoy  her  to  England. 
The  princess,  however,  was  still  pursued  by  ill-luck, 
and  on  the  voyage  met  with  furious  winds  and 
thunderstorms.  On  Saturday,  2nd  October,  at  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  she  reached  Plymouth  har- 
bour. The  nobility  and  gentry  of  the  neighbourhood 
had  flocked  into  the  town.  One  of  her  attendants 
wrote  to  Isabella  that  "  She  could  not  have  been 
received  with  greater  rejoicings  if  she  had  been  the 
Saviour  of  the  world."  ^ 

A  month  went  by  before  Henry  set  out  to  meet 
her,  though  he  wrote  her  a  letter  of  welcome, ^  and 
sent  a  number  of  English  ladies,  headed  by  the 
Duchess  of  Norfolk,  to  form  her  suite.  He  met 
Katherine  at  Dogmersfield  on  6th  November,  and 
there  they  were  joined  by  the  Prince  of  Wales. 
Ferdinand's  instructions  that  the  princess  was  not  to 
meet  her  husband  or  father-in-law  before  the  wedding 
day  had  been  overruled  by  Henry,  who  announced 
that  he  became  Katherine's  guardian  as  soon  as  she 
set  foot  on  English  soil.  There  was  music  by  Kathe- 
rine's minstrels,  and  the  prince  and  princess  danced 
together.  Henry  wrote  to  Ferdinand  later  telling 
him  how  much  he  admired  Katherine's  beauty  as 
well  as  her  agreeable  and  dignified  manners. 

It  had  been  arranged  that  Katherine  should  make 
her  public  entry  into  London  alone,  the  king  and 
royal  family  viewing  the  procession  from  a  platform 
in  Cheapside,  and  on  November  12th,  at  about  two 

1  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  i.,  No.  305. 

2  £.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  12G-8. 


1501]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  223 

o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  Katherine  rode  from 
Lambeth  over  London  Bridge  into  the  city,  followed 
by  a  great  train  of  nobles  and  gentlemen.  It  was  a 
scene  of  extraordinary  gaiety  and  splendour.  The 
procession  passed  through  crowds  of  rejoicing  citizens. 
The  streets  were  lavishly  decorated ;  pageant  followed 
pageant  at  different  points  of  the  city.  At  London 
Bridge  she  was  met  by  a  pageant  which  included  St. 
Katherine  and  St.  Ursula,  both  of  whom  recited  very 
long  poems,  which,  however,  were  a  mere  prelude  to 
the  eloquence  which  "  Polycy,""  Noblesse,"  "  Vertue," 
"  the  Archangel  Raphael,"  and  others  lavished  on  her 
at  later  stages  of  the  route.  The  final  pageant  re- 
presented the  heavens  with  seven  golden  candlesticks, 
and  "  a  man  goodliche  apparailed  representyng  the 
ffader  of  heven."  "  Goodly  ballades,  swete  armony, 
musicall  instrumentes  sounded  with  heavenly  noyes 
on  euery  side  of  the  strete."  Katherine  was  lodged 
in  the  bishop's  palace  near  St.  Paul's,  where  she  was 
visited  by  the  king  and  queen  and  the  Countess  of 
Richmond  soon  after  her  arrival.  On  the  following 
Sunday  (14th  November),  Arthur  and  Katherine  were 
married  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  by  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  and  fifteen  other  prelates.  The  stately 
ceremony  took  place  on  a  raised  platform,  the  bride 
and  bridegroom  being  dressed  in  white  satin.  Stand- 
ing before  the  high  altar,  the  Prince  of  Wales  endowed 
his  bride  with  one-third  of  the  revenues  of  Wales, 
Cornwall,  and  Chester.  The  banquet  that  followed 
was  a  scene  of  great  splendour,  and  an  opportunity 
for  the  display  of  the  king's  magnificent  plate. ^ 

^  For  Katherine's  reception  and  marriage,  see  City  Chron.,  pp. 
234-50 ;  Leland,  Collectanea,  v.  352-73 ;  Hall,  493-4.  Hall  gives 
certain  deteiils  as  to  the  wedding  night,  which  are  not  apparently 


224  HENRY    VII  [1501 

The  ten  days  that  followed  were  given  up  to  re- 
joicings— pageants,  banqueting,  and  "  disguisings,'* 
jousting  in  the  o])en  space  in  front  of  Westminster 
Hall,  and  dancing  within  the  Hall.  Katherine  danced 
in  Spanish  dress,  and  the  young  Prince  Henry,  we 
are  told,  "  perceiving  himself  to  be  accombred  with 
his  Clothes,  sodainly  cast  off  his  Goune  and  daunced 
in  his  Jackett,"  greatly  to  the  delight  of  the  king 
and  queen.  The  nobles  vied  Mdth  one  another  in 
"  pleasant  devices  "  to  vary  the  monotony  of  the 
disguisings,  and  a  "  Lanthorne  "  in  which  there  were 
more  than  a  hundred  great  lights  and  twelve  goodly 
ladies,  roused  the  Herald  to  even  more  than  his 
usual  enthusiasm.^  The  chef-d'oeuvre  apparently  was 
the  device  of  two  mountains,  ''  subtelly  convayed  and 
drawne  upon  Wheeles,"  linked  by  a  golden  chain, 
which  represented  England  and  Spain,  one  green  and 
planted  full  of  trees,  and  realistically  complete  with 
"  rocks,  marveylous  Beastes  and  a  goodly  young 
Ladye  in  her  Haire  pleasantly  besene,"  the  other  like 
a  rock  scorched  and  burnt  with  the  sun,  out  of  whose 
sides  "  grewe  and  eboyled "  various  metals  and 
precious  stones.  The  knights  and  ladies  who  in- 
habited the  mountains  made  music  so  sweetly  that 
the  Herald  is  moved  to  remark  that  in  his  mind  "  it 
was  the  first  such  pleasant  INIyrth  and  Property  that 
ever  was  heard  in  England  of  long  season."  Sunday 
afternoon  was  spent  in  the  gardens  at  Richmond 
playing   chess,  dice,  cards,  and  bowls,  shooting  at 

derived  from  contemporary  sources,  but  seemed  to  have  been 
inserted  later  when  Henry's  attempt  to  obtain  a  divorce  made 
the  question  of  the  consummation  of  Katherine's  marriage  with 
Arthur  of  great  importance. 

1  Leland,  Collectanea,  v.,  loc.  cit. 


1501]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  225 

the  butts,  and  watching  a  Spanish  juggler  do  many 
"  wondrous  and  delicious  Points  of  Tumbling, 
Dauncing,  and  other  Sleights." 

Henry  wrote  a  very  sympathetic  letter  to  Katherine's 
father  and  mother.  He  begged  them  to  dismiss  sad- 
ness from  their  minds.  Though  they  could  not  now 
see  the  gentle  face  of  their  beloved  daughter,  they 
might  be  sure  that  she  had  found  a  second  father, 
who  would  ever  watch  over  her  happiness,  and  never 
permit  her  to  want  anything  that  he  could  procure 
for  her.  Arthur  himself  wrote  that  he  had  never 
felt  so  much  joy  in  his  life  as  when  he  beheld  the 
sweet  face  of  his  bride.  He  and  Katherine  retired 
to  Ludlow  Castle  soon  after  the  wedding. 

These  rejoicings  symbolised  the  triumph  of  one 
of  Henry's  dearest  ambitions.  The  new  Tudor 
dynasty  was  now  united  in  marriage  Avith  one  of  the 
proudest  royal  houses  in  Europe.  At  the  same 
moment  he  was  arranging  an  alliance  which  was  to 
prove  far  more  important  in  the  future.  An  embassy 
from  Scotland  arrived  in  London  on  20th  November 
with  powers  to  settle  the  terms  of  the  long  proposed 
Scotch  marriage.  Since  the  treaty  of  December 
1497,  negotiations  for  the  marriage  had  been  dragging 
on,  their  uneventful  course  being  occasionally  broken 
by  impleasant  incidents  on  the  Border.  Henry's 
strong  desire  for  peace  is  visible  all  through. 

Margaret,  the  bride-elect,  was  a  delicate,  back- 
ward child  about  eleven  years  old ;  the  proposed 
bridegroom  was  a  man  of  twenty-eight,  notorious 
for  his  adventures  with  women,  who  at  the  time 
of  the  negotiations  had  a  liaison  with  the  beautiful 
Lad}'    Margaret    Drummond.^     But    scruples    as    to 

\See  Berg.,  Spanish  Cat.,  pp.  169,  170,  176. 

P 


226  HENRY    VII  [I50i 

suitability  were  unfashionable,  and  the  mysterious 
death  of  Lady  Margaret  removed  one  awkward 
difficulty.  1  The  negotiations  ended  in  a  treaty  drawn 
up  on  24th  January  1501-2.  It  was  agreed  that  a 
proxy  marriage  should  take  place  at  once,  and  that 
the  young  bride  should  be  handed  over  to  her  husband 
not  later  than  September  1,  1503.  Important  clauses 
arranged  for  free  commercial  intercourse  and  for  the 
peace  and  security  of  the  Border.  Thus  a  close 
offensive  and  defensive  alliance  was  inaugurated. 
The  suggestion  of  some  doubter  that  the  alliance 
might  lead  to  the  subjection  of  England  was  met  by 
Henry's  confident  answer  that  "  the  greater  would 
draw  the  less."  2 

As  usual,  Henry's  hour  of  success  was  embittered 
by  a  secret  source  of  anxiety.  The  Earl  of  Suffolk 
had  lent  himself  to  another  desperate  plot,  and  had 
fled  from  England  for  the  second  time  in  July  or 
August  1501.  After  negotiations  conducted  tlirough 
Sir  Robert  Curzon,  formerly  governor  of  Hammes,^  he 
put  himself  and  his  claims  under  the  protection  of 
the   King   of   the   Romans.     About   the   time   when 

*  Henry  had  spoken  of  the  objections  felt  by  lum  and  the  queen 
on  account  of  their  daughter's  youth,  but  probably  only  with  the 
view  of  making  the  Scotch  keener  on  the  match.  Henry  also 
hinted  at  a  possible  marriage  between  Margaret  and  the  heir  to  the 
throne  of  Denmark,  again  with  the  same  object  in  view. 

«  Rymer,  xii.  787-803;  City  Chron.,  pp.  253-5;  HaU,  49-4;  Pol. 
Verg.,  610;  Busch,  p.  356,  criticising  Gairdner,  Henry  VII.,  p.  187. 
The  proxy  marriage  took  place  at  Riclunond  on  the  day  after  the 
signing  of  the  treaty,  the  Earl  of  Bothwcll,  lately  Henry's  jackal, 
acting  as  proxy  for  James  IV.  Leland,  Colled.,  iv.  258-64 ;  Excerpta 
Hiatorica,  127. 

^  Curzon's  attitude  has  been  much  debated,  but  the  view  that  he 
was  all  the  time  acting,  in  Henry's  interests,  as  a  spy  upon  Suffolk 
seems  the  most  probable.  For  a  full  discussion  of  the  point  by  Dr. 
Gairdner  and  Dr.  Busch,  see  Busch,  op.,  cit.  pp.  364-5,  441-5. 


1501]         FOREIGN    AFFAIRS  :    1497-1503  227 

Katherine  landed  in  England  there  was  a  meeting 
at  Imst  in  the  Tyrol  between  Maximilian  and  the 
English  refugees.  Maximilian  hailed  this  new  oppor- 
tunity of  getting  hold  of  another  of  Henry's  rebels, 
but  as  usual  he  was  lavish  of  nothing  except  pro- 
mises. He  welcomed  Suffolk  as  his  "'  very  dear  and 
well-beloved  cousin,"  and  suggested  that  he  should 
take  up  his  abode  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  where  he  re- 
mained for  years  waiting  upon  fortune.  Policy  as 
well  as  poverty  bridled  Maximilian's  hostility,  and 
the  treaty  of  May  1499  was  very  valuable  to  Henry 
at  this  crisis.  A  suggestion  that  the  King  of  England 
might  advance  15,000  crowns  to  Maximilian  for  his 
Turkish  war  was  dangled  as  a  tempting  bait  before 
his  eyes,  and  Philip  was  using  all  liis  influence  to  im- 
prove the  relations  between  the  two  princes.  It  was  a 
struggle  of  policy  against  the  antagonism  of  mutually 
repellent  personalities,  and  in  the  end  Maximilian  put 
off  Suffolk  with  promises  and  began  to  consider  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  offered  by  Henry. 

Somerset  and  Warham  were  despatched  as  the 
English  plenipotentiaries,  with  instructions,  dated  28th 
September  1501,  to  demand  the  immediate  surrender 
of  Suffolk  and  the  other  rebels,  and,  if  this  were 
agreed  upon,  to  offer  50,000  cro\\'ns  as  a  present,  not 
a  loan.  The  mstructions  are  an  illustration  of  Henry's 
diplomatic  skill,  and  of  his  care  for  the  honour  of 
England.  The  money  was  not  to  be  given  on  any 
terms  which  could  suggest  that  he  offered  it  as  the 
price  of  peace,  which  he  and  his  progenitors,  Kings  of 
England,  had  never  done,  '"  for  it  coude  not  so  stand 
with  their  honour."  Over  these  terms  the  English 
and  Biu-gundian  envovs  haggled  for  months  at 
Antwerp.     Maximilian  tried  hard  to  get  "  oon  of  the 


228  HENRY    VII  [isoi 

myghtj'^est  prjuces  of  alle  the  Crystyn  faithe  "  to 
promise  a  larger  sum ;  he  suggested  a  marriage  be- 
tween Prince  Henry  and  his  granddaughter  Eleanor, 
but  was  either  too  chivalrous,  or  too  deeply  com- 
mitted to  Suffolk,  to  surrender  him. 

Meanwhile  in  England  Henry  had  taken  prompt 
measures.  On  November  7th,  Suffolk  was  proclaimed 
a  traitor  at  St.  Paul's.  His  property  was  confiscated, 
and  his  relatives  and  adherents  were  arrested.  His 
brother,  Lord  William  de  la  Pole,  and  his  cousin,  Lord 
William  Courtenay,  were  imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  and 
later  sent  across  to  Calais,  where  they  remained  till 
the  end  of  the  reign.  One  brother,  Sir  Richard  de 
la  Pole,  however,  "  so  craftely  conveyed  and  so 
wisely  ordered  hym  selfe  in  this  stormy  tempest  that 
he  was  not  attrapped  eyther  with  net  or  snare." 
Other  conspirators,  however,  were  less  fortunate.^ 
Sir  John  Wyndham,  and  Sir  James  Tyrell — the 
murderer  of  the  Yorkist  princes — and  many  others 
were  arrested  and  executed  in  the  following  May. 

The  subsidy  ^Maximilian  angled  for  was  to  be  used 
against  the  Turks,  whose  rapid  advance  westwards 
was  a  very  real  danger.  By  1500  they  had  overrun 
Greece,  and  their  fleets  scoured  the  ^lediterranean. 
If  the  Christian  faith  was  not  to  lose  more  ground 
their  advance  must  be  checked.  The  cry  of  "  the 
Cross  against  the  Crescent  "  should  have  roused  the 
sympathies  of  Europe.  But  neither  the  pressing 
danger,  nor  the  glamour  of  a  new  Crusade,  availed 
to  unite  the  princes  of  Europe.     It  was  a  materialistic 

1  Bacon's  story  that  Henry  obtained  the  surrender  of  Guisnes 
Castle,  of  which  Tyrell  was  in  command,  by  an  act  of  the  blackest 
treachery,  rests  only  on  the  authority  of  a  letter  written  by  Suffolk, 
who  naturally  took  the  most  unfavourable  view  of  Henry's  actions. 
See  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  181. 


1501]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  229 


age.  uninfluenced  by  great  ideals.  The  theory  of  the 
unity  of  Christendom  had  given  way  to  the  stern 
fact  of  bitter  rivalry  between  the  princes.  The  Pope 
and  Emperor  remained  as  symbols  of  the  vanished 
unity,  but  the  then  holders  of  both  offices  were  not 
the  men  to  arouse  the  loyalty  or  obtain  the  sub- 
mission of  Europe.  Maximilian's  authority  was 
set  at  nought  by  even  the  princes  of  the  Empire, 
Alexander  \'I.  was  a  corrupt  sybarite  to  whose  cove- 
tous fingers  the  gold  of  Christendom  would  have  chmg. 
Alexander,  however,  as  the  obvious  champion  of 
Christendom,  issued  his  appeal  to  the  princes  of  Europe. 

It  met  with  little  response.  Louis  of  France  was 
absorbed  in  ambitious  schemes.  He  had  met  with  some 
success  in  Italy,  and  by  the  end  of  1499  was  master  of 
Milan  and  Naples.  A  friendly  understanding  as  to  the 
partition  of  the  latter  duchy  united  him  and  Ferdi- 
nand for  the  moment,  and  made  them  deaf  to  the 
Pope's  appeal.  Henry's  attitude  is  interesting,  and 
more  sympathetic  than  might  have  been  expected. 
The  Venetian  envoy  reported  his  "  excellent  disposi- 
tion towards  the  Christian  expedition,"  and  he  was 
urged  to  attack  the  "  rabid  and  potent  enemy  of 
Christendom  "  in  the  following  spring.  He  answered 
the  Pope's  appeal  in  a  masterly  letter.  The  terms  of 
politeness  reveal,  as  they  were  meant  to  do,  Henry's 
real  distrust.  He  expressed  his  admiration  for  the 
Pope's  published  intention  of  leading  the  war  against 
the  infidel  in  person,  and  regretted  that  the  distance 
of  England  from  the  scene  of  combat — a  seven  months' 
journey  from  Venice — prevented  him  from  giving  any 
help.i 

But  this  evasive  answer  did  not  mean  that  Henry 
was  indifferent  to  the  peril  of  Europe.     On  the  con- 

1  Ellis,  Letters,  I.  (1),  50-59. 


230  HENRY    VII  [1502 

trary.  it  appears  that  he  was  one  of  the  few  princes  of 
Europe  who  had  any  serious  intentions  with  regard 
to  the  Crusade.  Though  he  had  persuaded  Alexander 
that  the  tax  of  one-tenth  imposed  by  him  upon  the 
clergy  was  "  contrary  to  the  liberties  of  the  king- 
dom "  and  therefore  could  not  be  collected,  he  himself 
obtained  the  grant  of  a  similar  sum  from  Convocation, 
£4000  of  which  he  presented  to  the  Pope.^  None  of 
the  other  princes  of  Europe  did  as  much  as  this, 
though  some  of  them  collected  Crusade  taxes,  which 
they  converted  to  their  own  uses.  Henry's  action 
is  the  usual  blend  of  generosity  and  carefulness. 
Though  unwilling  to  place  his  English  gold  in 
corrupt  hands,  he  was  quite  prepared  to  give  hand- 
some subsidies  to  more  dependable  champions  of 
Christendom.  Contemporaries  quite  appreciated  the 
sincerity  of  his  attitude.  Cardinal  Hadrian  records 
that  Henry  not  only  promised  pecuniary  support, 
but  also  that  he  would  himself  go  in  person  to  the 
war  against  the  Turks  in  defence  of  the  Christian 
faith.  Empty  boasting  was  alien  to  Henry's  char- 
acter. We  are  bound  to  believe,  as  contemporaries 
did,  that  the  offer  was  genuine,  as  well  as  the  offer 
made  some  years  later  when  Julius  II.  sat  in  Alex- 
ander's place.- 

In  the  s])ring  of  1502  there  happened  "  a  lamentable 
chaunce  to  the  kynge,  queene  and  all  the  people." 
On  the  2nd  of  April  the  Prince  of  Wales  died  at 
Ludlow  Castle.  A  life  full  of  promise  ended  pre- 
maturely, to  the  deep  grief  of  the  king  and  queen. 
After  lying  in  state  at  Ludlow  the  prince's  body  was 

^  Memorials,  p.  413;  Wilkins,  Concilia,  iii.  6^6.  The  Pope  sup- 
plemented Henry's  gift  by  issuing  bulls  for  the  sale  of  indulgences 
in  England  in  1501-     L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  9:5-100. 

«  See  below,  pp.  301-2. 


1502]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  231 

taken  in  a  mournful  and  stately  procession,  illumined 
by  the  glare  of  torches,  to  Worcester.  There  in  the 
cathedral  the  prince  was  buried  with  great  pomp. 
The  bier  was  draped  with  a  "  rich  Cloth  of  Majestic," 
and  surrounded  by  tapers  and  by  banners  bearing  the 
arms  of  England,  of  Spain,  Wales,  Cornwall,  Chester, 
Normandy  and  Guienne,  and  Poitoii,  and  the  arms  of 
Cadwallader,  the  British  ancestor  of  his  house.  "  Then 
the  Corpe  with  Weeping  and  sore  Lamentation  was 
laid  in  the  Grave.  .  .  .  He  had  a  hard  heart  that 
wept  not,"  wrote  the  chronicler.  ..."  Then  God 
have  INIercye  on  good  Prince  Arthur's  Soule."  ^ 

The  death  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  a  public 
calamity  as  well  as  a  private  grief.  One  boy's  life 
alone  stood  between  the  nation  and  a  renewal  of  civil 
strife,  and  all  the  hopes  of  the  Tudor  dynasty  centred 
in  him.  Suffolk's  exulting  letters  bring  out  the  danger 
of  the  position.  King  Henry,  he  wrote,  could  not  live 
much  longer,  and  if  Prince  Henry  died  he  would  at  once 
succeed.  Prince  Henry,  however,  was  a  gallant,  high- 
spirited  boy,  whose  brilliant  health  seemed  to  mock 
at  Suffolk's  hopes. 2  Round  him  the  king,  with  his 
tireless  patience,  began  to  re-weave  the  subtle  web  of 
his  diplomacy.  The  Spanish  alliance,  the  fruit  of 
tedious  years,  had  lost  its  chief  security  by  Arthur's 
death,  but  Ferdinand  was  even  more  anxious  than 
Henry  for  the  alliance  to  be  maintained.  In  the 
earlier  negotiations,  Ferdinand  had  appeared  to  yield 
reluctantly  to  Henry's  importunity ;  he  was  now  pre- 
pared to  make  overtures  for  the  marriage.  On  the 
10th  of  May  1502,  as  soon  as  he  heard  the  news  of 

1  Leland,  Collectanea,  v.  373-81  ;  Pol.  Verg.,  612  ;  Hall,  497  ; 
CUy  Chron.,  p.  255. 

*  A  montli  after  Prince  Arthur's  death  he  was  created  Prince  of 
Wales.     Hall,  497. 


232  HENRY    VII  I1502 

Arthur's  death,  he  despatched  the  Duke  of  Estrada 
with  powers  to  conclude  a  marriage  between  Kathe- 
rine  and  Prince  Henry.  He  was  ordered  to  keep 
these  powers  secret  until  he  had  asked  that  the 
princess  should  be  sent  back  to  Spain  with  her  dowry 
as  soon  as  possible,  taking  great  pains  to  impress 
Henry  with  the  sincerity  of  their  anxiety  for  their 
daughter's  return. 

With  the  beginning  of  these  negotiations  we  are 
plunged  anew  into  the  familiar  atmosphere  of  suspicion 
and  chicanery.  Ferdinand  soon  began  to  suspect  that 
Henry  might  try  to  avoid  the  responsibility  of  provid- 
ing for  Katherine.  A  letter  of  29th  May  breathes  alarm, 
in  spite  of  hisattempts  to  reassure  himself  and  his  envoy 
by  declaring  that  "  it  was  impossible  to  suppose  that 
such  a  prince  as  the  King  of  England  could  break  his 
word  at  any  time."  His  suspicions  gathered  strength 
as  time  went  on,  and  in  addition  he  had  heard  rumours 
that  a  marriage  between  Prince  Henry  and  a  French 
princess  was  contemplated.  In  July  he  wrote  very 
urgently  to  Estrada,  ordering  him  to  have  a  marriage 
contract  drawn  up  with  all  possible  speed,  but  "  not 
to  show  so  much  eagerness  that  it  may  cause  the 
English  to  cool."  Even  the  old  idea  of  an  English 
war  for  the  recovery  of  Guienne  and  Normandy  was 
dragged  out  again,  and  Spanish  help  was  to  be  offered 
to  Henry  for  this  preposterous  adventure.  INIany 
very  anxious  letters  written  by  Isabella  to  Estrada 
in  July  and  August  remain.  He  was  to  disguise  his 
sovereign's  eagerness  for  the  match  by  pressing  for 
Katherine's  instant  return.  "  They  could  not  endure 
that  their  beloved  daughter  should  be  so  far  from 
them  when  she  was  in  affliction."  A  rumour  had 
already  reached  Isabella  that  Henry  contemplated 
retaining  the  marriage  portion,  and  she  wrote  at  once 


1502]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS  :    1497-1503  233 

to  express  her  disbelief  in  the  report.  She  could  not 
believe  that  Henry,  "  being  as  he  is  so  virtuous  a 
Prince,  so  truthful,  and  such  a  friend  to  justice  and 
to  reason,  and  of  so  honourable  a  character,"  would 
break  his  promises.  This  testimonial  seems,  from 
the  context,  not  to  be  a  mere  flattering  remark 
destined  for  transmission,  through  Estrada,  to  Henry, 
but  an  expression  of  Isabella's  genuine  opinion.  Sub- 
sequent negotiations  undeceived  her  as  to  Henry's 
purpose.  Perhaps  she  was  trying  to  reassure  herself 
by  repeated  expressions  of  her  belief  in  Henry's 
integrity,  for  she  certainly  felt  very  anxious  on  the 
question  of  the  marriage  portion. 

To  these  advances  Henry  made  little  response.  He 
held  the  key  of  the  position.  Katherine  was  in 
England  and  dependent  on  him,  and  100,000  crowns 
of  her  marriage  portion  had  already  been  paid  to 
him.  His  position  in  Europe  was  so  much  stronger 
that  the  Spanish  alliance  became  a  less  glittering  lure. 
On  19th  June  1502  the  prolonged  negotiations  -svith 
Maximilian  ended  in  a  commercial  treaty  at  Antwerp, 
and  on  the  follo^^ing  day  another  treaty  was  drawn 
up.  By  this  Maximilian  undertook  not  to  give  help 
or  protection  to  English  rebels  and  to  dismiss  them 
from  his  territory.  In  return  Henry  promised  to 
give  Maximilian  £10,000,  to  be  used  in  the  war  against 
the  Turks.  The  money  was  paid  over  on  1st  October, 
and  the  treaty  was  proclaimed  in  London  three  weeks 
later.  ^  Henry's  willingness  to  pay  £10,000  in  an 
attempt  to  bind  the  faithless  Maximilian  to  with- 
draw his   support  of  Suffolk,   proves  how  much  he 

>  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  152-177;  Ezcerpta  Historica,  129;  Rymer, 
xiii.  3-10,  12-27.  Suffolk  and  his  confederates  were  again  pro- 
claimed as  traitors  from  St.  Paul's  Cross,  and  the  terrors  of  a  Papal 
bull  anathematising  rebels  was  added. 


234  HENRY    VII  [1502 

feared  the  refugee's  plans.  He  paid  a  high  price  for 
his  fears.  The  treaty,  unsatisfactory  in  its  terms, 
was  interpreted  by  Maximilian  in  a  spirit  which  made 
it  almost  useless  to  Henry.  He  allowed  Suffolk  to 
remain  at  Aix,  on  the  plea  that  it  was  a  free  town  of 
the  empire,  and  that  he  had  no  authority  to  turn 
him  out.  The  only  change  was  that  he  no  longer 
supplied  the  refugee  with  funds.  He  remained  at 
Aix,  running  deeper  into  debt,  surrounded  by  Henry's 
spies,  and  rendered  desperate  by  the  confiscation  of 
his  estates  and  the  execution  of  his  friends.  It 
appears  from  a  hint  contained  in  a  letter  of  Isabella's 
that  she  and  Ferdinand,  though  ostensibly  trying  to 
use  their  influence  vrith  Maximilian  in  Henry's  inte- 
rests, were  working  for  his  surrender  to  Spain,  not 
to  Henry.  The  refugee  wrote  a  series  of  letters  to 
Maximilian  imj)loring  him  for  help,  and  announcing 
that  he  and  King  Henry  could  never  be  together  in 
England  without  one  of  them  perishing. 

The  end  of  the  year  (1502)  found  Henry  still 
postponing  a  definite  agreement  with  Spain  about 
the  marriage,  and  negotiating  with  Louis  of  France, 
to  whom  he  declared  that  he  would  be  willing  to  pay 
ten  or  twelve  thousand  crowns  for  Suffolk's  sur- 
render. In  December  he  despatched  Sir  Thomas 
Brandon  and  Nicholas  West  to  take  the  Order  of  the 
Garter  to  Maximilian  and  obtain  his  oath  to  the 
treaty.  After  a  month's  delay  at  Cologne  they  met 
Maximilian  at  Antwerp,  and  succeeded  in  getting 
him  to  bind  himself  in  a  very  solemn  way.  He  took 
the  oath  in  the  church  of  St.  Michael,  kneeling  before 
the  altar  with  the  English  envoys,  and,  with  his  hand 
on  the  Gospels,  uttered  the  word  "  Juramus  "  at  the 
moment  of  the  elevation  of  the  Host.  As  far  as 
forms  went  the  elusive  prince  was  firmly  bound.     It 


1503]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  235 

vras  not  the  fault  of  the  envoys  that  he  took  his 
obHgations  so  Hghtly.  The  accounts  the  ambassadors 
furnished  to  Henry  are  rather  amusing.'  While  the 
to^\Tl  was  blazing  with  bonfires,  and  the  windows 
displaying  "  brennyng  cressentes,"  Maximilian  began 
to  show  his  usual  dexterity  in  evasion,  gi\'ing  various 
specious  reasons  for  refusing  to  be  invested  with  the 
Garter,  and  for  delaying  the  proclamation  of  Suffolk 
and  his  adherents  through  the  towns  of  the  empire. 
The  remonstrances  of  Henry's  envoys  were  treated 
lightly.  Maximilian  and  his  council  consulted  with 
"  grete  laughter."  The  envoys  resented  their  treat- 
ment, but  were  too  stupid  and  too  honest  to  be  a 
match  for  Maximilian,  who  obtained  a  further  delay 
by  despatching  an  embassy  to  Henry  to  settle  the 
disputed  points.  The  embassy  arrived  in  England  at 
the  end  of  March  1503.  Then  followed  a  repetition 
of  the  proceedings  in  Antwerp.  Henry  solemnly 
swore  to  the  treaty  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  the  city 
rejoiced  with  bonfires,  and  Maximilian's  proxy  was 
received  into  the  Order  of  the  Garter  at  Windsor. 
But  the  question  of  Suffolk  was  not  yet  settled.'^ 

The  year  1503  saw  two  events  of  the  first  import- 
ance in  the  English  royal  famil)',  the  death  of  the 
queen  and  the  marriage  of  the  Princess  3Iargaret. 
On  11th  FelDruary,  her  thirty-seventh  birthday,  Queen 
Elizabeth  died  in  the  Tower,  ten  days  after  giving 
birth  to  a  princess.  It  is  strange  that  the  queen's 
last  confinement  should  have  taken  place  in  the 
Tower,  a  place  ^vith  such  dark  memories  for  the 
people  of  her  house. ^     There  is  a  touching  account  of 

1  L.  and  P.  Hen.,  VII.,  ii.  pp.  189-220. 

*  See  below,  p.  326. 

'  According  to  the  City  Chronicle  (p.  258)  it  was  a  prematiire 
confinement  —  the  queen  "  entended  to  have  been  delyvered  at 
Richemount." 


236  HENRY    VII  [1503 

the  king's  grief,  and  the  dead  queen  was  sincerely 
mourned  by  the  whole  nation.  Her  body  lay  in 
state  in  the  Tower  chapel,  near  the  then  unknown 
grave  of  her  murdered  brothers,  and  was  afterwards 
taken  in  procession  through  the  streets  to  West- 
minster, an  effigy  of  the  queen  in  cro^^Tl  and  robes  of 
state  being  placed  above  the  coffin.  The  pall  bore 
the  queen's  arms  and  her  appropriate  motto,  "  Humble 
and  reverent."  The  burial  took  place  in  the  Abbey. 
There,  in  the  centre  of  the  gorgeous  chapel  of 
Henry  VII.,  beneath  Torregiano's  beautiful  monu- 
ment, rests  Elizabeth,  the  daughter,  sister,  ^vife,  and 
mother  of  kings. 

Margaret's  marriage  to  James  IV.  took  place  on 
August  8th.  The  summer  had  been  spent  in  pre^jara- 
tions,  and  the  king  seems  to  have  made  up  his  mind 
that  the  first  bride  of  the  Tudor  house  should  have 
a  suitably  magnificent  outfit.  Many  embroiderers 
were  hard  at  work  for  the  Queen  of  Scots,  perhaps 
adorning  her  garments  with  the  red  roses  of  Lancaster, 
which  appeared  in  every  possible  place,  from  cushions 
to  the  trappings  of  palfreys.  In  June  the  king  was 
buying  jewels  and  plate  to  the  value  of  £1G,000  for 
the  bride.  On  June  27  Margaret  left  Richmond  on 
her  way  to  Scotland.  Henry  went  with  her  as  far  as 
Collyweston  in  Northampton — one  of  his  mother's 
residences — and  from  there  she  went  on  alone  attended 
by  a  gorgeous  retinue  of  nobles.  The  Herald  gives 
a  detailed  account  of  the  whole  journey,  which  in- 
cludes vivid  descriptions  of  Margaret's  meeting  with 
James,  of  his  graceful  manners  and  accomplishments, 
of  the  wedding  in  St.  Giles'  Cathedral,  and  of  the 
rejoicings  that  followed.  It  appears,  however,  from 
Margaret's  later  letters,  that  she  was  far  from 
happy    in   Scotland.      She    pined    for    England   and 


Emery  Walker,  Photo 
ELIZABETH    OF   YORK 
From  the  full-length  efiSgy  on  her  tomb  in  Westminster  Abbey 


1503]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-1503  237 

the  English  court,  and  the  family  from  which  she 
was  exiled.  Her  pathetic  letters  to  Henry  show 
her  as  one  of  the  many  royal  victims  of  politic 
marriages.^ 

Death  had  been  busy  in  the  king's  household  as 
well  as  in  his  family,  and  the  figures  conspicuous  in 
the  early  years  are  henceforth  absent.  The  death  of 
Morton  in  1500  had  removed  one  of  Henry's  wisest 
ministers.  He  had  spent  his  youth  in  the  dangerous 
atmosphere  of  the  civil  wars,  and  learnt  pliability 
and  dexterity  therein.  When  exiled  to  Flanders  he 
became  the  brains  of  Richmond's  enterprise,  and 
Henry  never  forgot  the  debt.  INIorton  became  in  1485  a 
member  of  the  Council,  in  1486  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, in  1487  Lord  Chancellor,  and  in  1493  a  Cardinal. 
He  opened  Parliament  with  his  elaborate  Latin  ora- 
tions, delivered  answers  to  ambassadors,  and  so  on. 
Bacon's  account  of  Morton  as  a  man  "  in  his  nature 
harsh  and  haughty,  much  accepted  by  the  king  but 
envied  by  the  nobility  and  hated  of  the  people,"  is  prob- 
ably less  reliable  than  that  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  who 
spent  his  youth  in  Morton's  household  and  knew  him 
intimately.  "  In  his  face  did  shine  such  an  amiable 
reverence  as  was  pleasant  to  behold,  gentle  in  com- 
munication, yet  earnest  and  sage.  He  had  great  de- 
light many  times  with  rough  speech  to  his  suitors  to 
prove,  but  without  harm,  what  prompt  wit  and  what 
bold  spirit  were  in  every  man.  In  his  speech  he  was 
fme,  eloquent,  and  pithy.  .  .  In  the  law  he  had 
profound  knowledge,  in  wit  he  was  incomparable,  and 
in  memory  wonderful  excellent."  "^  He  was  a  states- 
man of  a  good  type,  who  played  his  conspicuous  part 

^  See,  for  instance,  Ellis,  Letters,  I.  (1)  41-3. 
*  More,  Utopia  (ed.  Lxunby),  p.  27. 


238  HENRY    VII  [1503 

with  ability  and  dignity  J  Tradition  makes  him  the 
inventor  of  "  Morton's  Fork,"  but  though  he  became 
unpopular  as  the  supposed  author  of  Henry's  ex- 
tortions,- what  evidence  there  is  goes  to  prove  that  he 
tried  to  restrain  the  king.  Certainly  things  became 
much  worse  after  his  death. 

Sir  Reginald  Bray,  who  died  in  1503,  had  also  spent 
his  life  in  Henry's  service,  and  enjoyed  an  unusual 
measure  of  his  confidence.  Bacon  states  that  Bray 
was  "  noted  to  have  had  with  the  king  the  greatest 
freedom  of  any  counsellor,"  though  he  suggests  that 
he  used  this  freedom  to  flatter  the  king,  but  Hall 
writes — "  he  was  so  bold  that  if  any  thinge  had  bene 
done  against  good  law  or  equitie,  he  would,  after  an 
humble  fassion,  plainly  reprehende  the  king.  .  .  .  He 
was  a  verj'  father  of  his  country,  a  sage  and  a  grave 
person,  and  a  fervent  lover  of  justice,"  ^  Like 
Morton  he  incurred  considerable  unpopularity  in  con- 
nection with  the  heavy  taxation. 

The  extent  of  the  influence  of  men  like  Morton 
and  Bray  over  Henry  must  remain  a  secret,  but  the 
scanty  evidence  that  remains  affords  no  proof  that 
they  pursued  any  original  policy,  except  Morton 
perhaps  xs-ith  regard  to  ecclesiastical  affairs,'*  but  the 
loss  of  men  who  had  shared  his  exile  and  won  his 
hardly  given  confidence  must  have  added  to  the  lone- 

1  He  hew!  a  magnificent  taste  in  building,  and  relics  of  his  work 
may  be  seen  at  Wisbech  and  in  St.  Mary's  Church  at  Oxford. 
When  Bishop  of  Ely  he  drained  the  fens  round  Peterborough,  and 
"  Morton's  Dyke  "  still  runs  seaward  through  the  marshes. 

*  See  City  Chron.,  p.  232. 

'  Hall,  C/iTon.,  407.  Like  Morton  he  was  a  lover  of  splendid  buildings. 
The  design  for  the  rebuilding  of  St.  George's  Chapel,  Windsor,  and 
that  of  the  chape  of  He  my  \^I.  at  Westminster,  are  supposed  to 
have  been  his,  and  he  laid  the  first  stone  of  the  latter  on  24:th 
January  1502-3. 

*  See  below,  p.  309. 


1503]        FOREIGN    AFFAIRS:    1497-150.3  239 

liness  of  a  king  surrounded  by  men  whom  he  could 
command  but  could  not  trust.  A  fine  influence  was 
removed  from  the  king's  court,  and  men  of  a  baser 
stamp,  who  had  proved  themselves  willing  and  un- 
scrupulous, became  Henry's  servants  if  not  his  ad- 
visers. To  ascribe  to  the  death  of  Bray  and  Morton, 
however,  the  deterioration  in  the  character  of  Henry's 
policy  in  his  later  years  that  has  often  been  noticed, 
is  to  allow  too  much  weight  to  their  influence.  No 
adviser  ever  had  power  to  mould  Henry's  policy,  and 
the  change  in  its  nature  was  due  to  the  inevitable 
hardening  of  an  ungentle  character  with  advancing 
years.  Carefulness  degenerated  into  avarice,  paternal 
despotism  into  tyranny,  caution  into  cunning. 

But  already  by  1503  Henry  had  completed  most 
of  his  enduring  work,  the  alliance  with  Spain  and 
Scotland,  the  re-establishment  of  England  among  the 
powers  of  Europe,  and — by  far  the  most  important — 
the  establishment  of  the  Tudor  despotism  in  England. 
On  the  financial  and  legislative  work  which  gave 
Henry  the  right  to  be  considered  the  founder  of  that 
despotism,  little  has  yet  been  said. 


CHAPTER    VII 

LEGISLATION   AND  FINANCE:   THE  FOUNDATION 
OF   THE  TUDOR  DESPOTISM 

In  contrast  with  his  diplomatic  activity,  painfully 
intricate  and  only  partially  successful,  Henry's  work 
in  England  has  the  attraction  that  comes  from  bold- 
ness and  success.  He  found  in  England  a  sphere  in 
which  all  his  first-rate  abilities  were  exercised,  in 
which  all  the  strength  of  his  strong,  unlovely  per- 
sonality was  exerted.  His  struggle  with  the  forces 
of  disorder  and  reaction,  his  unvindictive  triumph, 
the  patient  accumulation  of  power  and  wealth  that 
raised  the  Crown  far  above  all  forces  in  the  State, 
and  made  it  the  mainspring  of  history  in  the  following 
century,  can  claim  the  interest  that  comes  from  an 
achievement  of  first-rate  importance.  The  dynasty 
he  founded  bore  the  stamp  of  his  personality.  He 
settled  its  character,  chose  its  armour  and  weapons, 
and  his  spirit  animated  it  to  the  end.  He  can  claim 
to  have  introduced  a  new  idea  into  English  politics 
— that  apparent  contradiction  in  terms,  a  popular 
despotism. 

Where  did  Henry  go  for  his  political  ideal  ?  Con- 
siderable stress  has  been  laid  by  at  least  one  modern 
writer  on  the  supposedly  foreign  origin  of  Henry's 
constitutional    policy,^    but    beyond    Ayala's   words, 

'  "It  must  have  been  in  France  that  Henry  formed  those 
theories  of  personal  government  that  he  tried  to  introduce  into  the 
English  constitution."     Busch,  op.  cit.,  p.  29i. 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE       241 

"  He  would  like  to  govern  England  in  the  French 
fashion  but  he  cannot  do  it,"  there  is  no  evidence  to 
support  this.  In  some  comparatively  unimportant 
details,  French  and  foreign  influences  appeared.  His 
exile  abroad  had  certainly  familiarised  him  with  the 
continental  theories  of  kingship,  but  his  own  native 
talent  taught  him  what  pitfalls  to  avoid.  The  idea 
which  gives  the  Tudor  despotism  its  peculiar  char- 
acter and  secured  its  permanence,  that  of  despotic 
power  based  on  popular  approval  and  maintained  by 
an  alliance  of  the  Crown  and  the  middle  classes 
against  the  nobles,  was  certainly  alien  to  the  spirit 
of  French  despotism.  It  was  Henry's  own  contribu- 
tion to  political  theory ;  it  was  evolved  from  a  study 
of  contemporary  conditions  and  strengthened  by  the 
Tudor  instinct  for  popularity.  The  path  of  popular 
despotism  upon  which  Henry  and  his  successors  trod 
had  a  different  direction  to  that  which  led  from  the 
Louvre  through  Versailles  to  the  Bastille. 

The  rule  of  Edward  IV.  furnished  Henry  with  a 
recent  example  of  English  despotism,  but  surface 
similarities  do  not  conceal  the  fundamental  contrast 
between  his  work  and  that  of  his  predecessors.  A 
new  spirit  transformed  the  old  methods.  Henry's 
power  was  based  on  an  alliance  with  the  people, 
Edward's  led  to  a  reign  of  terror,  when  even  the  first 
excuse  of  absolutism,  strong  government,  failed.  He 
even  failed  to  secure  his  own  dynasty,  and  with  the 
disappearance  of  Edward  V.  and  his  brother  the  era 
of  violence  and  hopeless  anarchy  seemed  to  have 
returned.  Things  were  different  from  the  beginning 
with  Henry  VII.,  and  he  won  his  way  to  the  only 
possible  solution  for  the  difficulties  of  the  time, 
when  with  care  and  patience  he  set  up  a  popular 
despotism. 

Q 


242  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

The  disorderly  weakness  of  England  at  his  accession 
cried  out  for  strong  rule.  Parliamentary  government 
had  been  a  lamentable  failure,  and  the  people,  who 
had  proved  themselves  unripe  for  power,  were  ready 
to  sacrifice  the  theory  of  freedom  for  the  fact  of 
peace.  The  failure  of  this  premature  attempt  had 
been  followed  by  a  riot  of  aristocratic  faction.  The 
memory  of  Lancastrian  anarchy  fought  for  the 
Tudors  ;  occasional  arbitrary  conduct  seemed  a  smaller 
evil  than  lack  of  governance.  Tyranny  was  as  dis- 
credited as  Parliamentary  government.  The  ex- 
hausted country  had  submitted  to  the  rule  of 
Edward  IV.  and  Richard  III.,  but  their  bloodstained 
sceptres  failed  to  maintain  order,  and  a  reaction  had 
brought  about  the  triumph  of  Henry  VII.  He  it 
was  who  succeeded  in  finding  a  new  basis  for  des- 
potism, and  built  up  a  new  type  of  monarchy  which 
suited  both  the  genius  of  his  people  and  the  temper 
of  his  house. 

In  the  Tudor  despot  the  demagogue  was  but  thinly 
veiled.  The  vast  power  the  king  wielded  was  drawn 
from  the  peojjle's  will,  and  with  a  flash  of  insight 
Henry  VII.  realised  the  promise  of  this  new  alliance. 
"  It  was  the  definite  aim  of  the  Tudors  to  pose  as 
social  reformers,"  we  have  been  told,^  and  though  the 
first  Tudor  is  not  haloed  with  the  modern  aureole  of 
social  service,  he  was  none  the  less  the  saviour  of 
society  in  England. 

Even  from  the  beginning  the  drift  towards  des- 
potism is  visible.  Long  before  he  had  made  his 
throne  secure,  long  before  popular  sentiment  had 
gathered  round  the  new  monarchy,  we  find  him 
taking    the    first    steps    in    this    direction.       Before 

1  Social  England  (ed.  Traill),  ii.  p.  626 ;  Pollard,  Factors  in  Modem 
History,  p.  71. 


1485-1609]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE      243 

Parliament  met  or  his  title  was  confirmed  he  was 
exercising  all  the  rights  of  an  absolute  king.  The 
first  and  obvious  duty  of  restoring  order  was  taken 
in  hand  at  once,  with  a  judicious  mixture  of  firmness 
and  lenience.  No  wholesale  convictions  of  defeated 
foes  revolted  popular  sentiment.  Violence  and 
robbery  were  put  down  with  a  strong  hand.  Confi- 
dence in  the  stability  of  the  government  and  in  its 
power  to  protect  the  individual  revived,  and  popular 
opinion — that  great  security  for  peace — began  to 
range  itself  on  the  side  of  a  dynasty  that  had  a 
hereditary  title  as  well  as  the  force  of  arms  behind  it. 
As  the  knowledge  that  the  king  was  about  to  marry 
Elizabeth  of  York  spread  through  England,  men 
began  to  hope  for  a  peaceful  compromise  of  a  question 
that  had  devastated  England  for  two  generations. 
The  Yorkist  disturbances  of  the  early  years  of  the 
reign  hide  from  view  the  extent  of  popular  acquies- 
cence, and  before  the  princes  of  Europe  realised  that 
the  Tudor  dynasty  was  firmly  established,  some  sen- 
timent of  loyalty  was  already  attached  to  it  in 
England. 

Henry  attached  to  his  sceptre  national  feeling 
as  well  as  national  interests.  It  has  often  been 
pointed  out  that  the  growth  of  international  rivalry 
in  Europe  is  a  feature  of  the  age  in  which  Henry  VII. 
lived.  In  England,  owing  to  its  island  position  and 
the  long  wars  with  France,  a  feeling  of  national  unity 
had  appeared  early.  The  peculiar  character  of 
English  feudalism  and  of  English  municipalities  made 
decentralising  forces  less  strong  than  abroad,  and  it 
was  easier  for  national  to  replace  local  ambition. 
These  facts  gain  a  new  significance  in  connection 
with  the  foundation  of  the  Tudor  despotism,  and 
were  responsible  for  much  of  its  success.     National 


244  HENRY    VII  [U85-i509 

self -consciousness  was  growing  restive.  "An  appeal 
to  Magna  Carta  would  have  left  a  Tudor  audience 
untouched,"  but  it  could  be  roused  to  enthusiasm 
by  a  hint  of  national  pride  or  an  allusion  to  the 
splendid  heritage  which  Englishmen  were  beginning 
to  realise.  It  was  this  growing  pride  in  nationality 
that  the  Tudor  sovereigns  fostered,  represented, 
and  profited  by.  Like  the  rest  of  his  dynasty, 
Henry  was  perfectly  in  touch  with  contemporary 
feeling.  The  floating  atoms  of  thought  and  opinion 
held  in  suspense  among  the  mass  of  the  people  were 
crystallised  in  the  action  of  its  sovereign.  In  the 
king  the  aims  of  the  people  found  expression,  in  his 
policy  they  took  effect,  and  this  intimacy  with 
national  sentiment  became  the  mark  of  the  dynasty 
he  founded. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  practical  turn  of  Henry's 
genius  that  he  was  able  to  translate  this  harmony  of 
feeling  between  the  king  and  the  nation  into  a  regular, 
alliance  between  the  Crown  and  the  middle  classes, 
acting  through  their  representatives  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  He  drew  his  strength  from  the  loyalty  of 
the  dwellers  in  field  and  city,  not  from  the  towers 
and  walls  of  medieval  castles  or  the  leadership  of 
feudal  hosts.  The  influence  of  capital  was^  fast 
changing  the  basis  of  societyt  Personal  relations  be- 
tween lord  and  man  were  being  superseded  by  the 
complex,  impersonal  relationships  of  commerce  and 
industry,  of  employer  and  employed.  From  the 
decay  of  a  feudally  organised  society  the  middle  class 
emerged.  Rich  citizens  began  to  compete  with  feudal 
lords,  and  became  richer  with  the  revival  of  trade. 
The  class  which  had  thus  obtained  wealth  fomid  the 
path  to  }5olitical  power  opening  before  them,  and, 
owing  to  certain  peculiar  features  of  English  society 


1485-15091     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE      245 

— the  absence  of  rigid  social  castes  and  the  union  of 
the  knights  of  the  shires  with  the  burgesses  in  the 
House  of  Commons — their  representatives  in  the  House 
of  Commons  had  the  strength  that  came  from  the 
union  of  the  landed  gentry  with  the  wealthy  towns- 
men. In  an  era  of  transition,  therefore,  Henry  VII. 
enlisted  the  support  of  the  class  which  was  rising 
while  he  levelled  the  last  outstanding  feudal  figures 
to  whom  the  past  belonged.  The  forces  that  com- 
bined in  his  support  represented  all  the  progressive 
and  hopeful  elements  of  society.  As  one  conspiracy 
after  another  was  formed  and  failed,  the  hopelessness 
of  their  aims,  the  thi-eat  involved  in  their  success, 
was  stamped  upon  the  popular  mind.  They  were 
empty  of  any  promise  except  the  return  of  anarchy, 
they  represented  the  party  of  faction  and  reaction 
that  had  everything  to  gain  and  nothing  to  lose  by 
disorder.  The  days  of  civil  war  were  still  near 
enough  to  throw  their  dark  shadow,  and  the  trading 
classes,  feverishly  absorbed  in  money-making,  realised 
that  ever}i;hing  depended  on  the  king's  protection. 
A  successful  conspiracy  would  have  engulfed  their 
newly  earned  wealth  in  the  returning  waves  of 
anarchy,  hence  their  steady  loyalty  to  Henry  VII. 
The  king's  occasionally  heavy  taxation  and  his  un- 
constitutional borrowings  they  seem  to  have  regarded 
in  the  light  of  an  insurance  against  the  risks  of 
renewed  ci\'il  war,  and  isolated  acts  of  tyranny  were 
obscured  by  the  general  justice  of  the  king's  rule 
under  which  the  poor  and  weak  found  protection  and 
the  prosperous  citizen  found  peace. 

Over  the  nobles,  discredited  by  their  proved  in- 
capacity for  rule,  weakened  and  impoverished  by  the 
Wars  of  the  Roses,  Henry  w^on  his  first  triumph. 
They  had  no  leader ;   the  men  with  personality  or 


246  HENRY     VII  [1485-1509 

ambition  had  fallen  on  the  field  of  battle  or  by  the 
axe,  and  they  were  divided  by  memories  of  civil 
strife.  Against  them  was  a  resolute  man,  bent  on 
reducing  them  to  obedience,  who  struck  one  hammer 
stroke  after  another  at  the  overgrown  power  which 
was  the  root  of  disorder.  There  is  little  wonder 
that  he  prevailed. 

In  his  first  Parliament  they  had  to  take  an 
uivgalfltable  path  against  maintenance  and  livery.^ 
This  first  blow  attacked  the  root  of  their  political 
power  and  the  outward  signs  of  their  aristocratic 
dignity.  The  armed  bands  who,  swaggering  under 
feudal  badges,  had  overawed  the  countryside, 
intimidated  sheriffs,  and  bullied  juries,  felt  that  their 
days  were  numbered.  Private  war.  once  a  necessity, 
became  a  prohibited  and  almost  unattainable  luxury. 
But  the  effect  of  this  first  step  must  not  be  exagge- 
rated. The  practice  of  keeping  bands  of  armed  re- 
tainers was  too  much  part  of  the  life  of  an  English 
nobleman  to  be  abandoned  at  once.  The  tigers 
needed  careful  watching  even  after  their  teeth  were 
drawn.  One  statute  after  another  repeated  the  tenor 
of  the  oath,  adding  penalties.  The  "  feedmen  "  of 
the  Duke  of  Northumberland,  the  "  great  Host " 
of  the  Lord  Strange,  the  retainers  of  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  of  the  Nevilles,  and  other  nobles  ^ — 
though  not  as  familiar  as  the  retinue  of  the  Earl  of 
Oxford,  that  has  won  an  anecdotic  immortality — 
existed  late  in  Henry's  reign  to  show  how  much 
stronger  custom  still  was  than  law.  The  unsuccessful 
rebellions,  the  sharp  justice  of  the  Star  Chamber,  the 
obscuring  of  the  spirit  of  faction  by  years  of  peace, 

'  This  was  drawn  up  on  the  lines  of  an  oath  taken  in  1433,  when 
the  lords  had  ffwom  not  to  mauitain  felons.     Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  344a. 
*  Leiand,  Collectanea,  iv.  213. 


1485-1509]    LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE      247 

completed  the  work  that  legislation  had  begun.    By  the 
end  of  the  reign  the  typical  English  nobleman  had 
found  other  occupations   than   the  medieval  ones  of 
riot  and  civil  war.^     He  was  a  much  more  peaceful 
character,  who  was  beginning  to  appreciate  the  refine- 
ments of  Renaissance  culture  and  a  gentler  civilisation. 
Henry   was   too    politic   to   take   their   traditional 
occupation  from  his  nobles  without  giving  them  some 
new  interest  to  take  its  place.     His  attitude  to  the 
old  nobility  is  an  interesting  example  of  his  skill. 
By  his  unrevengeful  policy  he  conciliated  all  except 
the  irreconcilables,  and  the  great  names  of  the  feudal 
aristocracy  became  conspicuous  among  the  men  who 
adorned  his  court.     The  Duke  of  Buckingham  and 
his   brother  nobles  were  splendid  figures  at  jousts, 
revels,    and    "  disguisings,"   and   remained    at   court 
under   the  king's   eye   planning   further   displays   of 
glittering  magnificence  instead  of  in  the  distant  pro- 
vinces keeping  up  almost  royal  state  and  meditating 
treason.     Though  none  of  the  older  nobility,  except 
the    king's    immediate    relatives    and    the    Earls    of 
Oxford  and  Surrey,  obtained  important  employment 
in  the  State,  the  king's  tact  kept  them  satisfied  with 
their  ornamental  role.     Though  they  were  occasion- 
ally employed  as  dignified  ambassadors  on  diplomatic 
missions   which   called   for   no   special   ability,   their 
real  mission  in  life  was  to  shine  in  the  brilliant  con- 
stellation  revolving   round   the   throne.       It   was   a 
definite  part  of  the  king's  policy  to  keep  them  about 
the  court,  and  it  appears  that  their  absence  attracted 
his    notice    and    made    him    suspicious. ^       Henry's 

*  Tlie  Italian  Relation  (p.  39)  is  very  clear  on  this  point.  "  In 
former  times  .  .  .  the  nobles  kept  retainers.  ...  Of  these  there 
are  few  left,  and  those  diminish  daily." 

-  Andre,  Annates,  p.  125. 


248  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

example  was  followed  by  his  successors,  who  in- 
herited from  him  an  ineradicable  and  perhaps 
excusable  jealousy  of  the  great  aristocrats.  At  no 
period  of  English  history  were  the  nobles  more  con- 
spicuous at  court,  yet  at  no  period  had  they  less 
real  power  in  the  State. 

This  ornamental  nobility  was  balanced  by  a  new 
official  class.  Merchant  blood  ran  in  the  veins  of  the 
Tudors  themselves,  and  gave  them  sympathy  with 
men  of  non-noble  birth.  The  important  offices  of 
State  were  given  to  men  of  comparatively  obscure 
birth,  who  owed  everything  to  the  king  and  had  no 
traditions  of  aristocratic  independence  behind  them. 
Men  like  Morton,  Fox.  and  Warham  obtained  the 
dignity  necessary  for  their  exalted  office  by  holding 
high  ecclesiastical  rank,  and  their  success  encouraged 
talented  men  of  humble  birth  to  hope  for  similar 
careers.  Bray,  Empson,  Dudley,  and  VVolsey  were 
all  men  of  the  non-noble  class  who  found  their  way 
to  office  under  Henry  VII.  His  choice  of  middle- 
class  ministers  was  imitated  by  his  successors,  and 
though  he  personally  created  few  new  peerages,  a 
patent  of  nobility  was  often  the  reward  of  service  to 
the  State  in  the  later  Tudor  period.  The  new  nobility, 
as  it  has  been  called,  owes  its  origin  to  the  policy  of 
Henry  VII.  i 

As  Henry  amassed  wealth  and  set  on  foot  splendid 
traditions,  the  gulf  between  royalty  and  the  aris- 
tocracy widened.  This  process  of  exalting  the  royal 
dignity  continued.  His  children  did  not  marry 
among  the  English  nobles,  as  had  been  the  unfor- 
tunate tradition,  but  among  the  other  royal  houses 

*  See  list  of  Henry's  creations,  Forty-seventh  Report  of  Deputy 
Keeper,  App.  79-83. 


Kiuery  W, 

RICHARD   FOX,  BISHOP   OF   WINCHESTER 

1448—1528 

From  the  Natioual  Portrait  Gallery  copy  of  the  picture  by  Joannes  Corvus  at 

Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE      249 

of  Europe.  After  Warwick  had  been  executed,  little 
of  the  blood  royal  flowed  in  the  veins  of  subjects. 
The  Crown  withdrew  to  a  position  of  splendid  isola- 
tion, and  its  strength  was  unchallengeable  by  any 
noble  or  group  of  nobles. 

Even  the  Church,  with  all  its  great  traditions 
behind  it.  became  a  support  of  despotism,  not  a  bul- 
wark of  freedom.  Though  the  hierarchy  was  as 
strong  as  ever  in  wealth  and  estates,  the  Church  was 
rapidly-lQsing.its.ppwer  with  the  people.  The  advent 
of  the  critical  spirit  of  the  Renaissance,  the  re%aval 
of  insular  hostility  to  a  body  under  the  control  of 
Rome,  the  secularisation  of  the  Church,  the  decline 
of  the  monastic  ideal,  and  the  scandals  of  sanctuary 
and  benefit  of  the  clergy,  deprived  the  Church  of 
influence  and  involved  her  in  unpopularity.  By  the 
humiliation  of  the  baronage  and  the  weakness  of  the 
Papacy  the  Church  had  lost  its  former  allies,  its  natural 
leaders  had  become  the  king's  servants,  and  it  sank 
into  dependence  on  the  Crown,  bringing  to  it  all  the 
dead  weight  of  its  vast  possessions. 

The  position  of  the  Crown  gained  strength  from 
the  intellectual  revival.  The  Renaissance  brought 
with  it  the  revived  study  of  the  Roman  civil  law  with 
its  imperial  language  and  absolutist  sentiment. 
"  What  is  pleasing  to  the  prince  has  the  force  of 
law,"  1  became  a  familiar  maxim,  and  a  growing  band 
of  scholars  looked  to  the  king  for  patronage  and 
reward.  The  ideas  of  jNIacchiavelli's  //  Pnncipe  and  the 
rule  of  the  Italian  despots  had  familiarised  Europe 
with  the  sight  of  the  autocrat  whose  sceptre  was 
adorned  with  the  graces  of  art  and  literature. 

The  power  of  a  monarchy  that  thus  represented 

1  Ulpian. 


250  HENRY   VII  [1485-1509 

the  popular  will  early  gathered  round  it  national 
sentiment.  "  No  one  but  a  Tudor  poet,"  it  has  been 
said/  "  would  have  thought  of  the '  t)i\'inity  that  doth 
hedge  a  king '  or  have  written  : 

"  Not  all  the  water  in  the  rough  rude  sea 
Can  wash  the  balm  from  an  anointed  king. 
The  breath  of  worldly  men  cannot  depose 
The  deputy  elected  by  the  Lord." 

Under  the  dynasty  founded  by  Henry  the  people 
had  the  opportunity  of  looking  at  the  best  and 
strongest  side  of  the  theory  of  kingshi]3,  and  it  is  not 
by  accident  that  Shakespeare  and  the  rest  of  the 
Elizabethan  dramatists  are  silent  about  the  elected 
representatives  of  the  people  while  they  idealise  and 
dignify  the  monarch.  It  is  curious  to  notice  how  the 
reverence  for  and  awe  of  the  C^o^^^l  deepened  as  the 
reign  went  on.  Henry  deliberately  fostered  this  by 
his  personal  dignity  and  aloofness  from  the  common 
people,  and  by  the  growth  of  splendour  and  cere- 
monial at  his  court.  It  is  not  for  nothing  that  the 
word  "  Majesty  "  appears  first  in  this  reign.  The  king 
deliberately  set  himself  to  hedge  his  tlirone  by  all 
outward  forms  and  observances.  "  He  had  nothing 
in  him  of  vainglory,"  wrote  Bacon,  "  but  yet  kept 
state  and  majesty  to  the  height,  being  sensible  that 
majesty  maketh  the  people  bow." 

Henry's  relations  with  Parliament  introduce  the 
most  characteristic  feature  of  the  despotism  he 
founded.  A  series  of  pliant  Parliaments  gave  a  legal 
colour  to  the  methods  of  Tudor  government,  and 
enforced  the  royal  will  through  their  legislation. 
Though  in  Henry's  time  the  system  of  legalising 
absolutism  did  not  reach  its^limax,  it  was  he  who 

*   Pollard,  Factors  in  Modern  History,  p.  75. 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE      251 

established  the  tradition.  The  king  succeeded  in 
making  Parhament  subservient  without  resorting  to 
clumsy  methods  of  corruption.  His  dealings  with  the 
legislature  were  not  according  to  any  of  the  former 
models.  His  Lancastrian  descent  and  immediate 
summons  of  Parliament  may  have  raised  hopes  that 
the  king  was  going  to  tread  in  the  way  of  his  Lan- 
castrian ancestors,  and  that  the  age  of  Parliamentary 
government  had  returned.  But  the  king's  scheme 
was  very  different.  He  chose  a  middle  way  between 
the  too  great  dependence  on  a  popular  assembly 
associated  with  the  weak  rule  of  Henry  VI.  and 
the  hatred  or  contempt  for  Parliament  shown  by 
Edward  IV.  and  Richard  HI.  He  originated  a  method 
which,  while  it  preserved  the  time-honoured  forms 
of  Parliamentary  liberty,  secured  the  practical  pre- 
dominance of  the  royal  will. 

It  is  Henry's  success  in  using  the  power  he  had 
acquired  over  Parliament  to  secure  a  legal  basis  for 
his  despotism  and  arm  it  with  still  further  powers 
that  is  the  most  novel  feature  of  his  rule.  Men  were 
familiar  with  tyranny,  and  familiar  with  Parlia- 
mentary government,  but  the  blend  of  the  forms  of 
liberty  and  the  fact  of  absolutism  was  new.  At  the 
beginning,  at  all  events,  everything  was  done  under 
legal  forms.  It  was  not  until  the  king  had  furnished 
himself  with  new  weapons  forged  for  him  by  Parlia- 
ment, and  had  hedged  round  his  dynasty  with  every 
legislative  sanction  his  ingenuity  could  devise,  that 
he  abandoned  his  Parliamentary  ally,  and  resorted 
to  the  more  obvious  and  usual  methods  of  absolutism. 

How  was  this  subservience  of  Parliament  obtained  ? 
Not  in  the  main  by  any  underhand  juggling  with  the 
electorate,  or  any  political  wire-pulling,  but  by  that 
practical  coincidence  between  the  will  of  the  king  and 


252  HENRY  VII  [1485-1509 

the  wishes  of  the  people's  representatives  to  which 
allusion  has  before  been  made.  Satisfied  of  their 
unity  of  aim,  Henry's  complaisant  Parliaments  put 
into  his  hands  powerful  weapons  against  their  common 
foes,  and  their  trust  in  him  made  them  sanction 
some  of  his  most  arbitrary  actions.  On  most  points 
the  identity  of  interests  was  ob\'ious,  and  ^^'ith  con- 
summate tact  the  king  avoided  collision  on  the  points 
where  harmony  between  Crown  and  people  was  not 
complete.^  Finance  was  almost  the  only  question 
upon  which  difficulty  arose,  and  it  was  the  king's 
reluctance  to  arouse  the  opposition  of  Parliament  and 
the  people  by  asking  for  large  supplies  that  drove  him 
to  the  questionable  financial  expedients  of  the  later 
part  of  the  reign. 

The  king,  it  may  be  noticed,  was  not  without  many 
sources  of  influence  which  he  could  have  used  to 
restore  harmony,  if  any  hint  of  popular  opposition 
were  revealed.  In  this  connection  the  Lower  House 
is  the  more  important.  The  Upper  House  reflected 
in  its  political  nullity  the  practical  weakness  of  the 
nobility.  Never  had  the  House  of  Lords  been  more 
dependent  on  the  Crown  and  less  a  feature  of  the 
constitution.  This  was  not  due  to  the  extermination 
of  the  baronage,  a  picturesque  ^-iew  of  the  result  of 
the  battles  of  the  Roses  that  has  long  been  abandoned. 
Though  only  eighteen  temporal  peers  sat  in  Henry's 
first  Parliament,  the  number  afterwards  rose  to  the 
usual    level   of   about  forty.-       They  were,  however, 

'  The  theory  of  Hobbes  that  "  in  monarchy  the  private  interest 
is  the  same  with  the  public.  The  riches,  power,  and  honour 
of  a  monarch  arise  only  from  the  riches,  strength,  and  reputation 
of  his  subjects,"  coincides  for  once  exewtly  with  the  facts  of  the  case. 
Hobbes,  Leviathan,  chapters  xix.,  xx. 

'  Many  peers  were  absent  owing  to  unreversed  attainders  barring 
them  from  sitting.    One  curious  feature  is  that  several  of  the  northern 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE      253 

outnumbered  by  the  spiritual  peers,  who  were  more 
than  usually  dependent  on  the  Crown,  and  the  House 
of  Lords  became  a  negligible  factor  in  the  constitu- 
tional situation. 

Many  of  the  sources  of  influence  over  the  Commons 
discovered  by  Henry  VII.  were  little  used  by  him, 
owing  to  his  success  in  avoiding  causes  of  conflict  with 
Parliament,  but  they  are  interesting  as  anticipations 
of  later  methods.  The  appointment  of  the  Speaker 
was  practically  in  Henry's  hands,  though  theoretically 
he  was  elected  by  the  Commons.  The  list  of  Speakers 
for  the  reign,  Lovell,  Mordaunt,  Sir  Thomas  Fitz- 
William.  Empson,  Robert  Drury,  Thomas  Inglefield, 
and  finally  Dudley,  at  the  height  of  his  unpopularity 
— all  men  who  were  devoted  to  the  king's  interests 
— proves  how  strong  Henry's  hold  over  Parliament 
was.  The  fact  that  the  Speaker  then  managed  the 
whole  business  of  the  House,  very  much  in  the  way 
that  the  modern  leader  of  the  House  does,  but  in 
the  interests  of  the  Crown  not  of  a  party,  gave  the 
king  considerable  influence  over  proceedings  in  the 
Commons.  There  is  little  evidence  of  attempts  to 
control  elections  either  directly,  by  the  use  of  royal 
influence,  or  indirectly,  tlirough  putting  pressure  on 
local  magnates.  Neither  is  there  any  evidence  of  the 
creation  of  new  boroughs  on  royal  estates,  a  favourite 
method  with  Henry's  successors.  The  king's  policy 
gave  him  a  position  independent  of  such  deWces. 
There  is  e\adence,  however,  of  influence  in  another 
direction.  Nearly  all  the  new  charters  granted  to 
boroughs    during   the   reign    restricted   the  electoral 

lords,  whose  loyalty  was  not  suspected,  did  not  receive  their  \\Tits 
of  summons  until  late  in  the  reign,  or  early  in  that  of  Henry  VIII. 
This  has  not  yet  been  explained.  See  on  this  point  Stubbs,  Seventeen 
Lectures  oji  Med.  and  Mod.  Hist.,  pp.  407-8. 


254  HENRY   VII  [U85-1609 

bodies  in  the  towns.  The  case  of  Leicester,  where 
the  change  introduced  by  charter  was  confirmed  by 
Parhament,  ^  is  a  fair  example.  There  the  elective  body 
which  chose  the  town  officials  and  the  members  of 
Parliament  was  reduced  to  forty-eight,  on  the  plea 
that  "through  the  '  exclamacions  and  hedinesse  of 
persons  of  lytel  substance  '  the  elections  had  been 
scenes  of  riot  and  disorder."  -  This  action,  taken  on 
the  king's  own  personal  responsibility,  is  one  of  the 
first  cases  of  the  tampering  with  borough  franchises, 
which  was  elaborated  in  the  later  Tudor  period  when 
popular  independence  was  reviving. 

Owing  to  the  infrequent  and  brief  sessions  of 
Parliament,  most  members  of  the  House  of  Commons 
lacked  initiative,  and  had  no  familiarity  with  Parlia- 
mentary business.  They  had  no  leaders,  no  discipline 
or  party  organisation,  no  ground  of  common  action, 
no  biu'ning  grievances  to  rouse  them  to  resist  a  king 
who  had  a  reputation  for  wisdom  and  the  monopoly 
of  administrative  experience.  As  a  result  the  House 
as  a  whole  took  little  interest  in  politics.  The  question 
of  peace  or  war  might  arouse  some  enthusiasm,  as  in 
the  session  of  1491,  the  demand  for  large  supplies 
might  and  did  arouse  discussion.  But  with  regard 
to  general  legislation  Parliament  was  apathetic,  and 
at  the  same  time  trusted  the  king  comjiletely.  The 
interests  of  both  appeared  identical,  and  there  is 
no  record  of  opposition  even  to  the  measures  which 
invested  the  king  with  almost  despotic  powers. 

•  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  431-3;  Campbell,  Materials,  ii.  45G-7 ;  Bateson, 
Borough  of  Leicester,  pp.  30S-14,  319,  324. 

*  On  the  visit  to  Exeter,  when  he  enriched  the  city  with  the  gift 
of  the  hat  and  sword  (still  preserved  there),  Henry  modified  the 
constitution  of  the  city,  making  it  more  oligarcliic.  Court  of  Re- 
quests (Seldeu  ^c),  p.  4. 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE      255 

From  the  first  Henry  found  Parliament  a  willing  tool. 
The  brief  Act  recognising  the  king's  title  gave  an  idea 
of  the  kind  of  thing  that  was  to  follow.  His  right  to 
reign  was  acknowledged  not  bestowed  bv  Parliament. 
The  voice  of  Parliament  was  Henry's  voice,  the  peti- 
tions he  graciously  granted  he  had  himself  inspired. 
The  lead  given  by  this  first  Parliament  was  followed 
by  its  successors.  The  various  Acts  of  Attainder  by 
which  the  king  made  the  representatives  of  the  people 
share  the  responsibility  for  the  punishment  of  his 
foes,^  the  Acts  of  Resumption,  and  the  Star  Chamber 
Act  led  up  to  the  legislation  of  the  Parliament  of  1495 
(called  by  one  writer  "the  obedient  Parliament") — 
legislation  wliich  affords  very  strong  proof  of  the 
extraordinary  advance  in  the  power  of  the  Crown 
since  the  beginning  of  the  reign.  The  Act  legahsing 
benevolences  placed  an  arbitrary  exaction  of  the 
king's  on  the  same  footing  as  a  tax  imposed  by  the 
strictest  constitutional  forms,  the  Act  setting  up  the 
informer  system,  which  will  be  discussed  below,  gave 
the  king  an  opportunity  of  making  a  profit  out  of  the 
judicial  administration  of  which  he  at  once  took  full 
advantage.  This  Parliament,  strongly  monarcliical 
in  tendency,  is  the  forerunner  of  the  servile  Parlia- 
ments of  Henry  VIII.  The  last  Parliament  of  the 
reign,  called  after  a  long  interval  during  which  the 
kinu's  despotic  power  had  grown  through  years  of 
non-resistance,  went  further  still.  The  Act  of  1504 
gave  the  king  the  power  of  reversing  attainders 
by  letters  patent.-  By  this  extraordinary  statute, 
the  unopposed  passing  of  which  is  a  measure  of 
Parliamentary  confidence  in,  as  well  as  obedience  to, 

'  On  this  subject  see  Pollard,  op.  cit.,  p.  86. 

*   19  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  28  ;    Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  526  ;    Stat.,  ii.  669.     In 
1523  Henry  VIII.  was  given  the  same  powers  for  life^ 


256  HENRY   VII  [1485-1509 

the  king,  Henry  found  himself  able  to  perform  the 
highest  act  of  sovereignty  and  annul  at  his  pleasure 
an  Act  of  Parliament  passed  with  all  proper  for- 
malities. 

All  this  Henry  had  accomplished  without  doing  any 
injury  to  the  forms  of  the  constitution.  His  new 
plant  of  Parliamentary  despotism  had  taken  root. 
"  He  did  much  to  maintain  and  countenance  his 
laws,"  writes  Bacon,  "  which  (nevertheless)  was  no 
impediment  to  him  to  work  his  will.''  The  writers 
who  have  credited  him  with  the  desire  to  set  up  in 
England  a  despotism  of  the  continental  type  appear 
to  miss  the  very  features  which  made  the  Tudor 
monarchy  a  success.  The  bodyguard,  the  spy 
system,  and  so  on  were  accidents  rather  than  attri- 
butes of  his  despotism. 

Only  the  outstanding  features  of  the  legislation 
passed  by  Henry  through  his  complaisant  Parlia- 
ments can  be  dealt  with  here  Legislation  aimed  at 
political  disturbances  and  social  disorder  takes  up 
many  pages  of  the  statute-book.  The  oath  against 
livery  and  maintenance,  already  noticed,^  was  fol- 
lowed by  legislation  which  gives  a  picture  of  serious 
disorder.  The  Act  "  against  unlawful  hunting  in 
forests  and  parks  "  -  refers  to  the  facts  that  "  Divers 
persons  in  grete  nombre  som  with  paynted  faces  som 
with  Visors  and  otherwise  disguised  to  thentent  they 
shuld  not  be  knowen  riotously  and  in  manner  of 
Werre  arraied  "  had  hunted  by  night  as  well  as  by 
day  in  the  forests  and  parks,  especially  in  Kent, 
Surrey,  and  Sussex,  and  the  result  had  been  "  re- 
belleons,  insurrections,  riots,  robberies,  murders,  and 
other  inconveniences."     It  was  enacted  that  offenders 

1  See  above,  p.  49.  ^  1  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  7 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE       257 

should  be  brought  before  any  member  of  the  king's 
council,  or  any  justice  of  the  peace,  night  hunting 
being  made  a  felony.  ^  An  "  Actc  against  Murderers  "  ^ 
recited  the  neglect  of  the  law  "  and  how  murders  and 
the  slaying  of  the  king's  subjects  daily  increase  in 
the  land,"  and  enacted  that  murderers  should  be 
proceeded  against  at  the  king's  suit  within  the  year, 
and  that  there  should  no  longer  be  the  delay  of  a 
year  and  a  day — the  time  allotted  for  an  appeal  by  the 
relatives  of  the  slain.  Townships  were  to  be  amerced 
for  the  escape  of  murderers  ;  coroners  were  given  a 
fee  of  13s.  4d.  for  every  inquest  they  held,  a  penalty 
of  100s.  being  imposed  upon  them  for  neglect  to  hold 
an  inquest.  The  last  provisions  were  directed  against 
the  notorious  slackness  of  the  coroners,  which  had 
resulted  in  much  crime  going  unpunished. 

By  another  Act  single  justices  of  the  peace  were  de- 
prived of  the  power  of  allowing  bail  to  prisoners,  which 
had  been  much  abused  in  favour  of  powerful  offenders, 
"  wherby  many  murdrers  and  felons  eschaped  to 
the  greate  displeasure  of  the  king."  Two  justices 
had  to  agree  to  allow  bail,  and  the  fact  had  to  be 
certified  at  the  next  sessions  or  gaol  delivery.  This 
Act  and  others  like  it  amount  practically  to  a  restate- 
ment of  the  ordinary  duties  of  local  officials,  but  the 
heavA'  fines  which  punished  culpable  neglect  of  duty 
were  novelties.  The  disturbed  state  of  society  is 
further  illustrated  by  the  necessity  for  an  Act  of 
Parliament  which  made  the  violent  abduction  and 
marriage  of  women  of  property  a  felony.^ 

The  abuses  of  benefit  of  clergy  and  of  sanctuary — 

^  This  was  an  anticipation  of  Star  Chamber  methods. 
2  3  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  2 ;  Stat.  ii.  510. 

^  See  also  Star  Chamber  Cases  (Selden  Soc).  Act  against  Thomas 
Keneston,  3  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  32. 

B 


258  HENRY   VII  [1485-1509 

another  grave  danger — were  limited.  Benefit  of 
clergy  then  extended  to  all  who  could  read,  and  thus 
exempted  a  horde  of  criminals  from  the  sterner 
justice  of  the  secular  courts.  An  Act  of  1490  only 
allowed  benefit  of  clergy  once  to  any  offender  who 
was  not  actually  in  orders,  and  provided  that  if  his 
offence  were  murder  or  felony  he  was  to  be  branded 
on  his  left  thumb  with  the  letters  M  or  T.  If  subse- 
quently indicted  he  was  to  lose  his  benefit  of  clergy. 
By  later  statutes  soldiers  who  deserted  from  the 
army,  or  servants  who  killed  their  masters,  were 
entirely  deprived  of  benefit  of  clergy.  Contempo- 
rary opinion  declared  that  the  king  had  been  led  to 
pass  these  Acts  owing  to  the  much  more  satisfactory 
state  of  affairs  in  France.^ 

The  right  of  sanctuary  was  a  similar  menace  to 
good  government.  Any  church  could  shelter  an 
offender  from  his  pursuers  for  forty  days,  and  certain 
specially  pri\'ileged  places  could  give  sanctuary  for 
an  unlimited  period.  In  1487  an  Act  of  Parliament 
was  passed  to  prevent  the  privilege  of  sanctuary 
being  abused  by  debtors  in  order  to  defraud  their 
creditors.  The  opinion  of  the  judicial  bench,  as 
well  as  popular  feeling,  was  hostile  to  these  dangerous 
privileges,  and  in  the  case  of  Humphrey  Stafford 
(1487)  the  judges  decided  that  sanctuary  could  not 
protect  an  offender  accused  of  high  treason.-  This 
put  a  powerful  weapon  into  the  king's  hands,  and  his 
position  was  strengthened  by  the  bulls  which  his 
cordial   relations   with   the   Papacy   enabled   him   to 

I  4  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  13 ;  7  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  1  ;  12  Hen.  VII., 
cap.  7  ;  Stat.,  ii.  538,  549,  639  ;  Pol.  Verg.,  609  ;  Ital.  Rel.,  p.  35. 
See  above,  p.  26. 

*  3  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  5  ;  Stat.,  ii.  613  ;  Year  Book,  3  Hen.  VII., 
fo.  12,  pt.  6  ;    More,  Utopia,  p.  44;  Reeves,  ed.  Finlason. 


1485-1509]    LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE      259 

obtain  from  three  Popes  in  succession.  A  bull  issued 
by  Innocent  VIIL,  and  confirmed  by  Alexander  VI. 
in  1493,  deprived  a  robber  or  murderer  who  left 
sanctuary  and  committed  a  second  offence  of  its 
benefits,  and  authorised  the  king's  officers  to  take^ 
him  out  of  sanctuary.  At  the  same  time  the  bull 
contained  a  provision,  very  important  from  Henry's 
point  of  \iew,  that  in  the  case  of  a  fugitive  sus- 
pected of  high  treason  taking  sanctuary,  his  place  of 
refuge  might  be  surrounded  by  guards  to  prevent  his 
escape.  In  1504  another  bull  forbade  the  reception 
of  criminals  who  had  left  sanctuary  into  any  other 
refuge,  and  provided  that  all  criminals  might  be 
watched  by  royal  guards  when  in  sanctuary. 

The  bitter  fruit  of  years  of  tumult  and  disorder 
could  not  be  destroyed  at  once  by  Act  of  Parliament. 
Henry's  task  of  restoring  order  seemed  an  endless 
one.  Quite  late  in  the  reign  native  as  well  as  foreign 
observers  were  commenting  on  the  prevalence  of 
crime  and  violence.  Though  the  sight  of  twenty 
thieves  hanging  on  one  gallows  was  not  unique,  theft 
was  "  ryffe  and  rancke  "  everywhere. 

The  streets  of  London  were  thronged  with  beggars 
and  with  idle  gentlemen  who,  said  More,  "  carrye 
about  with  them  at  their  tails  a  great  flock  or  train 
of  idle  and  loytering  serving  men  .  .  .  who  jette 
through  the  street  with  a  bragging  look  and  think 
themselves  too  good  to  be  any  man's  mate."  Such 
men  when  they  lost  their  masters  had  no  trade  but 
theft.i 

Much  of  the  disorder  was  caused  by  the  lack  of 
employment  due  to  the  increase    of    sheep-farming, 

^  More's  Utopia  gives  a  vivid  picture  of  England  about  the  time 
of  the  Cornish  rebellion. 


260  HENRY   VII  [1485-1509 

the  disbanding  of  the  Hveried  retainers,  and  by  the 
spread  of  luxury  and  ostentation,  "  the  strange  and 
proude  newefanglenes  in  apparel,  prodigall  riot  and 
sumptuous  fare  .  .  .  the  many  noughtie,  lewde,  and 
unlav.'full  games  that  send  the  haunters  of  them 
streyghte  a  stealynge  when  the>T  money  is  gone."  ^ 

Further,  a  host  of  vexatious  law-suits,  the  legacy  of 
civil  war,  had  cropped  up  to  harass  the  landlord.  No 
one  felt  his  title  secure,  but  much  was  done  to  restore 
a  feeling  of  confidence  by  the  Statute  of  Fines. 2  The 
fine,  which  under  the  original  Act  of  Edward  I.  had 
been  an  unchallengeable  way  of  conveying  land,' 
had  by  a  later  statute  {noun  chaqiie)  lost  this  ter- 
minative  effect.  The  former  efficacy  of  the  fine  was 
restored  by  Henry's  statute,  with  increased  pre- 
cautions against  fraud.  The  theory  that  this  statute 
was  an  instance  of  Henry's  craft  and  foresight,  that 
it  beguiled  the  nobility  into  impoverishing  themselves 
by  making  alienations  easy,  was  the  product  of 
Bacon's  fancy,  and  though  often  repeated  is  now 
abandoned.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  Act  is  only  a 
re-enactment  of  an  earlier  Act  of  Richard  III.,  and 
its  ostensible  purpose  of  pro\4ding  a  method  of 
securing  a  doubtful  title  to  land  was  its  real  one. 
Its  later  use  by  lawyers  as  a  convenient  method  of 
alienating  entailed  land  could  hardly  have  been  fore- 
seen by  Henry,  and  was  of  little  importance  until 
considerably  later.* 

Of  all  the  statutes  which  aimed  at  restoring  order 
to  the  distracted  country,  the  famous  Star  Chamber 

1  More,  Utopia  (ed.  Lunihy),  p.  35.  *  4  Hen.  \T;I.,  cap.  24. 

3  27  Edw.  I.,  s.  1,  cap.  I. 

*  The  fine  had  to  be  proclaimed  in  Court  four  times  in  each  of  the 
three  terms  following  the  conveyance,  and  at  the  end  of  the  year, 
being  unchallenged  at  twelve  separate  pubhcations,  became  absolute 
and  a  hen  to  all  further  suits. 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE      261 

Act  of  1487  is  the  most  important.^  The  preamble 
gives  a  vivid  picture  of  the  evils  the  statute  proposed 
to  remedy.  "  The  Kyng  oure  sovereygn  Lord  re- 
membreth  howe  by  onlawfull  mayntenance  gevyng 
of  lyveres  signes  and  tokyns  and  reteyndres  by 
endentur  promyses  othes  writyng  or  otherwise,  em- 
bracieries  of  his  subgettes  ontrue  demeanynges  of 
Shrevys  in  makyng  of  panelles  and  other  ontrewe 
retournes  by  takyng  of  money  by  jurryes  by  greate 
riotts  and  unlavv'full  assemblez  the  polacye  and  good 
rule  of  this  realme  is  almost  subdued  .  .  .  wherby 
the  lawes  of  the  lond  in  execution  may  take  litell 
effecte,  to  the  encres  of  murdres,  robberies,  perjuries 
and  unsuerties  of  all  men  lyvjiig  and  losses  of  their 
londes  and  goodes." 

By  this  Act  the  Lord  Chancellor,  the  Lord  Treasurer, 
and  the  Lord  Privy  Seal,  or  any  two  of  them,  were 
empowered  to  summon  a  bishop  and  a  temporal  lord 
of  the  king's  council  with  the  chief  justices  of  the 
king's  bench  and  of  the  common  pleas,  or  in  their 
absence  two  other  judges,  and  form  a  court  to  con- 
sider any  bill  or  information  laid  against  any  one  for 
misbehaviour  of  the  kind  stated  in  the  preamble. 
They  were  given  authority  to  summon  the  offenders 
to  appear  before  them  by  writ  or  privy  seal,  to 
examine  and  punish  them  as  if  they  had  been  con- 
victed by  one  of  the  ordinary  courts  of  law.  At  the 
same  time  the  justices  of  the  peace  were  to  order  in- 
quiries to  be  made  by  special  juries  with  a  40s.  qualifica- 
tion as  to  the  concealment  of  offences  by  other  inquests. 

By  later  Acts,  as  will  be  seen  below,  the  sphere  of 
this  court  (which,  though  not  designated  by  the  name 
of  the  Star  Chamber  in  the  Act  of  1487,  may,  for  the 
sake  of   convenience,   be  called  by  that  name)  was 

1  3  Hen.  VU.,  cap.  1. 


262  HENRY   VII  [1485-1509 

considerably  enlarged.  Acts  of  1495  provided  that 
"  heinous  riots "  were  to  be  reported  to  the  Star 
Chamber  by  justices  of  the  peace,  that  cases  of  perjury 
were  to  come  before  it,  and  that  appeals  could  be 
brought  to  it  in  criminal  cases.  In  1504  a  new  Act 
against  retainers  mentioned  the  Star  Chamber.  It 
gradually  attracted  business  of  a  very  varied  char- 
acter. Quarrels  between  the  Merchant  Adventurers 
and  the  Staplers,  gild  disputes,  cases  of  usury  and 
forgery,  and  disputes  over  enclosures  were  brought 
before  it,  and  thus  a  court  of  the  king's  servants  had 
in  its  hands  the  commercial  and  industrial  interests 
of  the  people.^  The  vast  increase  in  the  power  of  the 
king,  who  by  a  court  set  up  outside  the  ordinary 
jurisdiction  could  thus  control  the  daily  lives  of  his 
subjects,  can  hardly  be  exaggerated. 

This  Act  is  another  of  the  cases  in  which  originality 
of  device  cannot  be  claimed.  It  has  been  pointed 
out  that  it  derived  its  "  statutory  pedigree  "  from  an 
Act  of  1453,  which  empowered  the  Chancellor  to  sum- 
mon rioters  before  the  Council,-  and  further  the  Act  of 
1487  only  adapted  for  particular  cases  powers  derived 
from  a  much  older  source,  the  authority  exercised 
by  the  king's  Council  in  its  judicial  capacity.  But 
though  it  did  not  set  up  the  "  Star  Chamber;"  nor 
introduce  any  startling  novelty  in  administrative 
machinery,  the  Act  was  of  first-rate  importance  for 
practical  purposes.  It  converted  a  temporary  and 
abandoned  experiment  into  part  of  the  permanent 
machinery  of  government.  The  process  sketched  out 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  VI.  was  hardened  and  defined. 
The  Act  increased  the  number  of  offences  with  which 

^  Loadam,  Star  Chamber  Cases  (Selden  Soc);  Somerset  Star 
Chamber  Cases  (Somerset  Rec.  Soc).  See  also  Appendix  III., 
p.  423,  below.  -  Leadam,  op.  cit.,  Intro.,  Ixiv.  seq. 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE       263 

the  Council  had  the  clear  authority  of  Parliament  to 
deal,  legalised  the  issue  of  writs  of  privy  seal,  long 
a  subject  of  contention  between  king  and  Parliament, 
and  extended  to  a  number  of  specified  offences  the 
partly  abandoned  power  of  the  Council  to  examine 
defendants  on  oath.  Like  other  engines  of  Tudor 
absolutism,  the  court  of  Star  Chamber  was  a  despotic 
excrescence  growing  out  of  constitutional  usage,  and 
sacrificing  the  forms  of  justice  in  particular  cases  to 
the  good  of  the  State.  There  is  little  doubt  that  its 
action  in  the  early  days  of  the  Tudors  was  almost 
uniformly  beneficent.  It  touched  a  class  of  offenders 
against  whom  the  ordinary  courts  were  powerless,  res- 
cued weak  suitors  from  the  tyranny  of  juries  bribed  or 
coerced  by  the  local  magnates,  and  substituted  for  the 
decision  of  a  venal  official,  or  the  verdict  of  a  corrupt 
or  coerced  jury,  the  judgment  of  uninterested  and 
highly-placed  statesmen.  Rapid  and  effective  action 
took  the  place  of  the  delays  by  which  legal  process  had 
often  been  made  a  denial  of  justice.  The  simplicity 
of  its  procedure  swept  away  technicalities,  anomalies, 
and  injustice.  "  It  was  a  law  unto  itself,  with  hands 
free  to  invent  new  remedies  for  every  new  disease 
of  the  body  politic."  ^  The  enthusiasm  of  Lambarde, 
who  wrote  of  the  Star  Chamber  as  "  this  most  noble 
and  praiseworthy  court,  the  beams  of  whose  bright 
justice  do  blaze  and  spread  themselves  as  far  as  the 
realme  is  wide,"  is  a  sufficient  contrast  to  the  whole- 
sale denunciations  of  it  current  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  But  the  points  that  made  for  its  usefulness 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII,,  led  to  the  defects  that 
produced  its  condemnation  later.  The  temporary 
supersession  of  the  jury  system,  the  condemnation  of 

I  Maitland,    Eng.    Law,    1307-1600   (Social    Eng.    (ed.   Traill), 
ii.  657). 


264  HENRY   VII  [1485-1509 

the  accused  on  written  evidence,  without  the  oppor- 
tunity of  being  confronted  with  witnesses,  its  rapid 
methods,  the  growing  practice  of  examining  the  de- 
fendant in  secret  and  subjecting  him  to  torture  under 
a  Hcence  obtained  from  the  Privy  Council,  all  these 
things  were  liable  to  become  weapons  of  arbitrary 
tyranny.  Its  very  freedom  from  formalism  and  re- 
luctance to  consider  itself  bound  by  its  own  pre- 
cedents, the  elasticity  that  had  made  the  court 
valuable  in  the  early  period,  were  twisted  into 
arbitrariness  and  illegality.  The  court  that  had  been 
the  safeguard  of  the  weak  and  a  security  for  order  in 
unquiet  times,  degenerated  in  less  able  hands  and 
more  peaceful  times  into  the  weapon  of  weak  cruelty, 
and  it  finally  perished  in  well-earned  ignominy. 

The  legislation  of  the  Parliament  summoned  in  the 
autumn  of  1495,  after  Warbeck's  raid  on  the  shores 
of  Kent,  reflects  the  critical  character  of  the  situa- 
tion. The  Act  which  promised  security  to  those 
who  supported  the  king  dc  facto  is  important  as 
a  measure  of  the  king's  uneasiness,  rather  than  for 
its  effect  in  reassuring  his  subjects.^  Other  Acts 
were  more  important.  There  was  a  great  dread  of 
violence,  of  some  upheaval  within  the  kingdom  that 
would  drive  the  king  from  his  throne.-  During  the 
late  disorders  local  officials  had  proved  themselves 
incapable.  The  jury  system  was  under  a  cloud ; 
sheriffs  and  justices  of  the  peace  were  corrupt  and 
careless.  If  the  king's  throne  was  to  sur\ave  exter- 
nal   dangers,    the    internal    administration    must  be 

»  11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  1  ;  Stat.,  ii.  56S.  Dr.  Busch  sees  in  it, 
however,  one  of  Henry's  "  most  important  and  fair  measures  to 
remove  the  evil  of  insecurity  in  matters  of  law."  Busch,  op.  cit., 
p.  271.  The  Act  was  of  some  importance  in  the  constitutional 
disputes  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

*  Paaton  Letters,  iv.  894. 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE      265 

reformed.  Very  important  legislation  was  passed 
through  Parliament  which  still  further  increased  the 
control  of  the  Crown  over  local  institutions.  The 
Star  Chamber  Act  had  already  pro\'ided  for  the  trial 
of  sheriffs  who  had  neglected  their  duty,  but  this 
Parliament  went  further,  and  a  new  statute  imposed 
heavy  fines  on  such  offenders.  The  Act  also  pro- 
vided a  check  upon  the  justices  of  the  peace,  by 
ordering  that  complaints  against  them  were  to  be 
taken  to  the  justices  on  assize  or  to  the  king  and 
chancellor  —  that  is,  to  the  Star  Chamber.  The 
preamble  of  the  Act  stated  the  king's  wish  "  that 
his  subjects  should  live  at  peace  under  his  laws  and 
increase  in  riches  and  well-being,"  but  the  Act  was 
not  repealed  when  the  danger  was  over.^ 

Other  statutes,  as  we  have  seen,  extended  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Star  Chamber  to  perjury,  in  cases 
touching  the  king,-  and  re-affirmed  its  powers  in  con- 
nection ^ith  "  heinous  riots."  ^  Another  Act,  evidently 
passed  with  a  view  of  diminishing  the  number  of 
vagrants,  who  became  a  grave  political  danger  in  this 
year  of  crisis,  provided  that  all  beggars  incapable  of 
work  should  be  returned  to  their  own  hundreds.  The 
severe  penalties  imposed  by  an  Act  of  Richard  III. 
were  abrogated,  and  the  vagrant  was  to  be  set  in  the 
stocks  for  three  days  on  the  first  offence  and  for  six 
days  on  the  second  offence.  Scholars,  soldiers,  and 
sailors  who  begged  were  required  to  show  a  licence 
from  the  governing  body  of  their  university  or 
from  their  commanding  officers.^  This  statute,  which 
seems  to  anticipate  the  later  distinctions  between 
able  and  impotent  beggars  was  evidently  successful. 

1  11  Hen.  \TI.,cap.  15, cap.  24  §  6,cap.  25  ^2;Stat.,  ii.  579,  589,  590. 
>  11  Hen.  Vn.,  cap.  25;  Stat.,  ii.  589-90. 

*  11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  7  ;  Stat.,  ii.  573. 

*  11  Hen.  \ai.,  cap.  2 ;  Stat.,  ii.  569. 


266  HENRY   VII  [1485-1509 

Perkin  Warbeck  found  no  crew  of  vagabonds  and 
out-of-works  to  support  him,  and  in  1504  it  was  found 
possible  to  reduce  the  penalties  upon  vagrancy  to  a 
day  and  a  night  in  the  stocks.^ 

The  Star  Chamber  statute  had  not  completed  the 
reform  of  the  jury  system,  and  still  more  drastic 
treatment  was  required.  An  Act  of  1495  set  up 
machinery  by  which  appeal  might  be  made  from  the 
verdict  of  a  jury.  In  civil  cases  the  appeal  lay  to  a 
special  jury  of  twenty-four  summoned  to  hear  the 
appeal,  and  if  the  verdict  of  the  original  jury  was 
reversed  each  member  of  it  was  fined  £20.  In 
criminal  cases  appeal  lay  to  the  Star  Chamber,  which 
thus  obtained  control  of  the  whole  criminal  adminis- 
tration of  the  country."  In  1504  this  legislation, 
which  had  been  passed  for  a  term  of  years  only,  was 
renewed  as  to  civil  appeals  but  not  as  to  criminal 
appeals.^  It  has  been  suggested  that  Henry  had  the 
settled  purpose  of  destroying  the  jury  system — that 
typically  English  institution  that  was  so  much  mis- 
understood by  content porary  foreign  observers  * — but 
as  usual  the  evidence  of  sinister  design  is  absent.  In 
civil  cases  he  arranged  for  appeal  from  one  jury  to 
another,  and  the  legislation  as  to  criminal  appeals 
was  not  renewed  during  the  reign.     As  a  matter  of 

'   19  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  12;  Stat.,  ii.  656. 

*  11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  24  ;  11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  25;  Stat.,  ii.  588-90. 
There  had  been  a  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  sufficient  panel,  met  by 
reducing  the  quahfication  of  jurors.  Later  in  the  reign  the  quali- 
fication was  doubled,  which  suggests  a  marked  improvement  in 
social  conditions.     19  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  13 ;  Stat.,  ii.  657-8. 

3   19  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  3;  Stat.,  ii.  649. 

*  The  Italian  observer  wrote  of  the  jury  system  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VII.  as  a  bad  custom,  and  declared  that  those  who  could 
not  bear  the  discomfort  of  being  shut  up  "without  food,  fire,  or 
means  of  sitting  down  "  had  to  agree  to  the  verdict  of  their  more 
Spartan  comrades.     Itai.  Rel.,  p.  33. 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE      267 

fact,  however,  it  appears  that  criminal  appeals  were 
still  occasionally  taken  to  the  Star  Chamber  in  spite 
of  the  lapse  of  the  legal  authorisation.  In  1504  the 
laws  against  livery  and  maintenance  were  strengthened 
by  a  statute  which  imposed  fines  for  breaches  of  the 
earlier  Act,  and  gave  a  certain  inquisitorial  power  to 
justices  of  the  peace,  who  were  ordered  to  summon 
before  them  any  they  should  "  thynke  to  be  suspect 
of  any  reteynour." 

The  effect  of  these  centralising  statutes  can  hardly 
be  exaggerated.  They  introduced  the  efficient  local 
administration  which  became  one  of  the  features  of 
Tudor  rule.  The  king  enlisted  in  his  service  all  the 
political  capacity  he  could  find,  placing  much  reliance 
on  the  minor  country  gentry  who  became  the  props 
of  the  Tudor  throne,  and,  though  his  government 
was  high-handed,  it  was  strong  and  dependable.  The 
excesses  of  the  local  tyrants,  the  cramping  fetters  of 
the  exclusive  corporations,  gave  way  before  the  power 
of  the  king.  Many  despots  had  given  place  to  one — 
a  despot  enlightened  by  practice  in  ruling,  and 
broadened  by  considering  the  nation  as  a  whole. 

Side  b}'^  side  with  the  Star  Chamber,  Henry  set  up, 
or  rather  established  on  a  permanent  footing,  a  court 
which  is  less  well  known.  The  Court  of  Requests,  )C 
the  "  poor  man's  court  of  equity,"  aimed  at  providing 
a  summary  tribunal  for  the  adjustment  of  civil  cases 
under  the  rules  of  equity.  Like  the  Star  Chamber,  it 
is  an  offshoot  of  the  Council,  but  it  bears  clear  marks 
of  the  theory  that  made  the  king  the  fountain  of 
justice,  in  the  fact  that  for  a  long  time  it  followed  the 
king  on  his  progresses  through  the  kingdom.  This 
practice  was  gradually  given  up,  though  an  isolated 
instance  has  been  found  as  late  as  1544,  and  the  legal 
element  grew  stronger  as  time  went  on.     The  court 


268  HENRY   VII  [U85-1509 

seems  to  have  been  popular  as  well  as  effective,  and 
its  reorganisation  is  a  proof  of  the  king's  tenderness 
for  his  poorer  subjects.^ 

The  volume  and  importance  of  all  this  legislation 
supports  the  familiar  paradox  that  the  Tudor  des- 
potism saved  the  essence  of  Parliamentary  govern- 
ment.- Henry  VII.  roused  Parliament  from  a  state 
of  impotence.  In  the  reign  of  Edward  TV.  Parlia- 
ment "  seemed  to  have  nothing  better  to  do  than  to 
regulate  the  manufacture  of  cloth.  ...  If  for  a 
moment  it  can  raise  its  soul  above  defecti\'e  barrels 
of  fish  and  fraudulent  gutter  tiles  this  will  be  in  order 
to  prohibit  '  cloish,  kayles,  half  bowl'"  and  other 
unlawful  games. ^  Henry  brought  Parliament  back 
from  the  contemplation  of  particular  and  local  in- 
terests to  the  great  affairs  of  the  nation.  It  is  true 
that  Parliament  only  entered  upon  its  new  and  im- 
portant work  under  the  heavy  hand  of  a  master  ;  but 
experience  in  dealing  by  legislation  with  great 
national  questions  would  have  been  cheaply  pur- 
chased by  the  sacrifice  of  independent  powers  of 
regulating  the  "  making  of  worsteds  "  or  the  herring 
trade.  But  even  this  sacrifice  Parliament  did  not 
have  to  make.  The  new  work  of  becoming  the  instru- 
ment of  despotism  thrust  upon  the  national  assembly 
by  Henry  VII.  did  not  absorb  all  its  energies.  Its 
activity  in  the  regulation  of  special  trades  continued. 
The  Statute  Rolls  of  Henry  VII.  make  curious  read- 
ing. Legislation  making  great  constitutional  changes 
comes  side  by  side  with  Acts  prescribing  punishments 
for  those  who  stuffed  beds  with  "  improper  feathers," 

'  Cases  in  Court  of  Requests  (ed.  Leadam),  Selden  Soc.  It  is 
suggested  that  the  name  of  the  court  was  taken  from  that  of  a 
French  court  of  a  similar  nature. 

*  Maitland,  Eng.  Law,  1307-1600  {Social  England,  ii.  p.  647). 

»  Ibid.,  p.  G47. 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE      269 

restraining  the  evil  practices  of  itinerant  pewterers,  or 
ordering  the  repair  of  Bristol  pavements.^  The  share  in 
government  (or  at  all  events  in  legalising  the  Acts  of 
government)  was  given  to  Parliament  by  Henry  VII. 
for  his  own  personal  convenience,  but  it  brought  about 
results  of  the  highest  importance.  The  king  brought 
Parliament  back  to  the  old  line  of  development  inter- 
rupted by  two  generations  of  anarchy.  He  started 
it  on  a  course  which  made  it  a  natural  develop- 
ment for  Parliament  to  alter  the  national  religion, 
become  supreme '  in  finance,  and  ultimately,  by 
changing  the  succession,  to  obtain  control  of  the 
executive  government.  The  system  of  the  first 
Tudor  despot  contained  in  it  the  essence  of  Parlia- 
mentary monarchy. 

Henry's  financial  policy  invites  both  admiration 
and  criticism.  The  latter  it  has  obtained  in  abundant 
measure  ;  the  sensational  faults  of  the  later  have 
obscured  the  patient,  meritorious  work  of  the  earlier 
years.  In  some  respects  Henry's  treatment  of  finance 
was  the  most  difficult — though  perhaps  the  most 
successful — of  all  the  work  he  did  for  England.  He 
found  the  country  exhausted,  the  exchequer  empty, 
even  the  crown  jewels  in  pawn.  He  maintained  a 
precarious  throne  against  foreign  and  domestic  foes, 
kept  up  a  splendid  court,  and  yet  left  a  fabulous 
treasure  to  his  son.  His  extraordinary  success  was 
not  due  to  the  accident  of  a  general  economic  recovery 
in  England,  or  to  the  brilliant  and  original  devices  of 
a  financial  genius.  Neither  was  it  the  result  of  the 
painful  accumulations  of  a  throned  miser  ;  ^  the  king's 
personal  expenditure  was  lavish,  his  court  was  magni- 

1  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  388. 

2  On  this  point  Bacon  has  been  blindly  followed  in  spite  of  the 
weight  of  contrary  eN-idence.  See  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  p.  206; 
Brown,  Ven.  Cal.,  No.  870. 


270  HENRY   VII  [1485-1509 

ficent,  his  rewards  to  followers  generous,  his  prefer- 
ence of  public  policy  to  private  gain  constant.  He 
was  a  generous  host  and  a  liberal  ally.^  His  success 
was  the  result  of  improved  management,  careful 
account-keeping,  constant  attention  to  detail,  and 
judicious  economy. 

In  his  reorganisation  of  the  ordinary  sources  of 
revenue,  Henry  showed  the  skill  of  a  born  financier. 
Of  these  sources  the  Crown  lands  were  the  most 
important. 

Though  the  vast  estates  of  York  and  Lancaster 
had  been  added  to  the  C^o^^^l  lands,  the  ruinous 
wars,  and  the  extravagance  of  both  Lancastrian  and 
Yorkist  kings  had  led  to  great  alienations  of  territory. 
Heavy  mortgages  encumbered  many  estates,  and  land 
and  buildings  were  neglected  and  ruinous.  In  the 
very  first  month  of  his  reign.  Henry  showed  his  char- 
acteristic grasp  of  the  detail  of  finance,  and  before  he 
met  his  first  Parliament  he  had  the  n^ajiagement  of 
the  Crown  lands  at  his  fingers'  ends.  In  September, 
when  he  had  been  only  a  week  or  two  in  his  caj)ital, 
he  was  arranging  for  the  repair  of  royal  castles  in 
Chester  and  Flint,  and  appointing  loyal  followers 
as  keepers  of  other  strongholds.  New  stewards  and 
bailiffs  of  royal  manors  were  appointed,  new  parkers 
and  masters  of  the  game  in  the  royal  forests.  From 
Berwick  to  Cornwall  we  find  e\-idence  of  the  king's 
activity.-^  Revenues  from  Crown  lands,  hitherto 
paid  into  the  Exchequer,  were  transferred  to  the 
control  of  special  commissioners  in  order  to  avoid 
delay.     The   leases   under  which   Crown  lands  were 

^  In  1502-3  he  spent  £90,327  from  the  pri\-y  purse  in  entertaining 
foreign  guests.  Privy  Purse  Expenses,  Excerpta  Historica,  pp.  126- 
131. 

*  Materials,  passim;  and  Bateson,  Records oj Leicester,  pp.  308-373. 


GREAT   SEAL   of   HENRY   VII   (J) 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE      271 

held  were  reviewed,  and  nearly  all  the  new  leases 
proxided  for  the  payment  of  "  improved  rents  "  in 
addition  to  the  former  rents. ^  Repairs  were  under- 
taken at  Windsor,  Westminster,  and  the  Tower  of 
London  ;  order  was  brought  out  of  chaos,  and  waste 
and  neglect  restored.  The  Crown  lands  were  con- 
stantly augmented  during  the  reign  by  the  forfeitures 
of  traitors  and  rebels,  though  the  harsh  action  of 
these  confiscations  was  mitigated  by  limitations  in 
favour  of  widows  and  heirs.  ^  The  first  Parliament  of 
the  reign  passed  an  Act  of  Resumption  restoring  to 
the  Crown  all  lands  alienated  since  2nd  October  1455. 
Other  Acts  followed  later,  and  finally  the  "  obedient 
Parliament  "  displayed  its  subservience  by  restoring 
to  the  Crown  property  alienated  as  far  back  as  the 
reigns  of  Edward  III.  and  Richard  11.^ 

The  result  was  that  Henry  had  in  his  hands  an 
accumulation  of  landed  property  far  greater  in  extent 
than  any  king  before  him,  which,  besides  increasing 
his  income,  added  to  his  already  vast  power.  These 
great  lands  supported  a  small  army  of  servants  and 
officials,  disciplined  and  devoted  to  the  king's  service, 
and  provided  lucrative  posts  with  which  the  king 
augmented  the  scanty  salaries  of  ambassadors  and 
other  State  officials.'*  There  are  not  sufficient  data 
for  an  exact  statement  of  the  revenue  received  by 
Henry  from  the  Crown  lands,  but  the  well-informed 

^  In  1495  this  policy  was  pushed  to  extremes  on  the  lands  appro- 
priated to  the  Prince  of  Wales.  Leases  of  land  from  which  a  larger 
rent  could  be  expected  were  simply  annulled,  the  land  being  let 
on  new  terms. 

-  See  Rot.  Pari,  vi.  398-400. 

'  This  Act  does  not  seem  to  have  been  acted  upon  to  any  great 
extent.  It  was  a  threat  rather  than  a  reality.  Rol.  Pari.,  vi, 
33&-84,  459-62,  465-9. 

*  See  Materials,  and  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VIII.,  vol.  i.,  Intro. 


272  HENRY   VII  [1485-1509 

Italian  observer  was  not  very  far  out  when  he  esti- 
mated it  at  547,000  crowns  (£109,000).^ 

The  profitable  incidents  of  a  dying  feudalism, 
wardships,  marriages  and  reliefs,  formed  a  considerable 
but  diminishing  item  of  the  royal  revenue.  In  addi- 
tion Henry  expected  freeholders  owning  land  worth 
£40  to  take  up  the  honours  and  burdens  of  knight- 
hood, and  towards  the  end  of  the  reign  Empson's 
notorious  activity  was  displayed  in  searching  out  and 
fining  defaulters.  The  later  years  of  the  reign,  fertile 
in  financial  expedients,  produced  also  a  revival  of 
the  royal  claim  for  aids  on  the  knighting  of  the  king's 
eldest  son  and  the  marriage  of  his  eldest  daughter. 
In  1504  Henry  claimed  both  these  aids,  though  Prince 
Arthur  was  dead  and  Princess  Margaret  had  been 
married  for  some  years.  There  was  considerable 
opposition  in  Parliament,  led,  it  is  said,  by  Thomas 
More.^  With  characteristic  tact  Henry  disarmed 
opposition,  and  contented  himself  with  a  smaller 
sum  than  that  offered  by  the  Commons.^ 

A  third  source  of  revenue  was  the  customs  duties. 
Henry's  first  Parliament  showed  itself  generous  in 
this  matter,  and,  following  the  precedent  set  in  the 
reign  of  Richard  III.,  granted  tonnage  and  poundage 
to  the  king  for  life.*  The  king's  far-sighted  and 
disinterested  commercial  policy  was  rewarded  by  a 
steady  increase  in  the  customs  duties,  which  by  the 
end  of  the  reign  had  reached  a  total  of  over  £40,000, 
a  rise  of  twenty-eight  per  cent.^ 

1  Ital.  Rel.,  pp.  47-9. 

'^  Dr.  Stubbs  suggests  that  this  legend  is  doubtful.  Stubbs, 
Lectures  on  Med.  and  Mod.  Hist.,  p.  418. 

3  The  Commons  offered  £40,000,  and  the  king  took  £30,000. 

♦  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  268-70. 

^  This  estimate  is  taken  from  Dr.  Busch,  p.  283,  on  the  authority 
of  Schanz,  Englische  Handelspolitik,  &c.  Cf.  Ital.  Rel.,  p.  50,  which 
gives  the  average  at  £40,000. 


1485-1509J     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE       273 

But  these  sources  of  revenue  were  barely  adequate. 
The  old  maxim  "  that  the  king  should  live  on  his 
own "  could  only  be  translated  into  practice  by 
the  most  careful  management  in  time  of  peace. 
The  constitutional  method  of  obtaining  the  money 
required  for  imminent  or  actual  war  or  for  any 
extraordinary  expenses  was  by  Parliamentary  grant. 
There  are  records  of  only  five  such  grants  during 
the  reign,  and  it  is  obvious,  from  the  tone  of  the 
preambles,  that  these  grants  were  still  regarded  as 
exceptional  provisions  for  a  national  emergency, 
rather  than  as  an  ordinary  part  of  the  revenue  of 
the  Crown.  The  usual  form  of  the  levy  was  that  of 
a  tax  of  a  tenth  and  fifteenth,  which,  though  origi- 
nally arranged  as  an  income  tax  on  inhabitants  of 
corporate  towns  and  of  rural  districts — roughly  corre- 
sponding to  a  tax  upon  personal  and  real  estate — 
had  been  fixed  since  1332  on  the  basis  of  that  year's 
levA%  and  consequently  produced  a  sum  of  about 
£38,000.  This  form  of  tax  was  open  to  grave  objec- 
tions. The  changes  in  the  centres  of  population  and 
the  decay  of  once  flourishing  towns  necessitated  very 
large  remissions  in  the  contributions  assessed  upon 
certain  places.  The  levy  therefore  could  not  be  col- 
lected in  its  entirety,  and  as  the  new  towns  were  not 
separately  assessed,  it  certainly  did  not  represent  the 
taxable  capacity  of  the  people.  In  his  first  Parlia- 
ment Henry  VII.  made  an  experiment  of  some  im- 
portance, and  tried  to  supersede  the  antiquated 
assessment  by  a  new  levy.  It  took  the  form  of  a 
grant  of  the  tenth  part  of  each  man's  annual  income 
from  land,  with  Is.  8d.  from  every  ten  marks  of 
personal  property.^     This  attempt  to  supersede  the 

*  A  similar  experiment  had  been  made  by  Edward  IV.  in  1472. 
Parliament,  however,  with  a  short  memory,  declared  that  no  such 

S 


274  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

old  fixed  levy  proved  a  complete  failure,  probably 
through  the  absence  of  any  suitable  system  of  valua- 
tion and  assessment,  and  the  king,  instead  of  the 
estimated  £75,000,  obtained  only  about  £25,000.  In 
the  following  year  the  old  system  was  restored,  a 
fifteenth  and  a  tenth  being  voted  to  make  up  the 
deficit.  In  1491  two-fifteenths  and  tenths  were 
granted,  and  were  followed  by  a  rising  in  Yorkshire  ; 
in  1495  Parliament  was  not  asked  for  a  new  vote, 
but  the  crisis  of  1497  produced  two  separate  grants 
of  two-fifteenths  and  tenths— about  £120,000.  This 
exceptionally  heavy  tax  led  to  the  march  of  the 
Cornishmen  on  the  capital.  The  king  found  that  the 
limit  of  Parliamentary  taxation  had  been  reached. 
Only  once  again  in  the  remaining  years  of  his  reign 
did  Henry  ask  Parliament  for  a  grant,  and  this  took 
the  form  of  the  feudal  aids  above  mentioned.^  Henry 
found  that  his  power  of  imposing  his  will  upon  Parlia- 
ment had  its  limits,  and  he  discovered  easier  ways 
of  raising  money  that  fostered  instead  of  irritating 
his  despotic  temper. 

Some  of  these  were  innocent  enough.  He  devised 
his  own  very  successful  methods  of  making  wars  and 
rumours  of  wars  a  source  of  profit.  The  greater  part 
of  the  large  vote  obtained  from  Parliament  for  the 
French  campaign  was  saved  by  the  Treaty  of  Etaples, 
which  itself  added  a  punctually  paid  French  pension 

grant  had  ever  before  been  made.  Lincoln,  Great  Yarmouth, 
New  Horsham,  and  Cambridge  were  specially  exempted.  A 
subsidy  upon  ahens  was  granted  at  the  same  time,  at  the  rate  of 
(is.  8d.  from  every  alien  craftsman,  40s.  from  every  aUen  merchant, 
and  so  on. 

1  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  532-4.  Each  of  these  grants  was  supplemented 
by  a  vote  from  Convocation,  which  in  1602  also  voted  a  tenth  for  an 
expedition  against  the  Turks. 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE       275 

to  the  king's  income.  The  Scotch  invasion  was  used 
in  the  same  way.'  Another  irregular  but  not 
illegal  device  was  that  of  granting  new  privileges  to 
cities  and  trading  companies  in  return  for  a  money 
grant.  London  bought  new  privileges  for  £5000  in 
1478,  but  in  1505  had  to  pay  5000  marks  for  a  con- 
firmation of  them. 

The  king  was  not  too  proud  to  embark  in  more 
obviously  commercial  speculations  on  his  own  account, 
and  various  notes  of  the  profits  obtained  by  royal 
trading  in  wine,  wool,  and  tin  have  been  preserved. - 

In  emergencies  the  king  asked  for  and  obtained 
loans  from  his  subjects,  from  great  cities,  and  from 
private  indi\'iduals.  He  obtained  loans  from  the  city 
of  London  four  or  five  times — amounting  in  1487-8  to 
£6000 — but  these  loans  were  always  repaid.  ^ 

After  the  critical  period  of  the  reign  was  over, 
financial  methods  gradually  degenerated.  Arbitrary 
and  novel  financial  expedients  were  substituted  for 
the  routine  of  Parliamentary  grants.  The  king  had 
the  common-sense  gift  of  adapting  his  methods  to  his 
circumstances.  He  walked  softly  in  the  early  days 
of  insecurity,  but,  his  throne  once  secured,  the  auto- 
cratic bias  of  his  race  appeared.  He  became  impatient 
of  the  constitutional  methods  that  \vith  small  results 
brought  bitter  hostility.  In  finance  as  elsewhere  the 
years  1495-8  are  the  turning-point,  and  the  evils 
increased  as  the  reign  went  on.  Even  in  the  time  of 
Morton  and  Bray,  however,  financial  methods  were 

^  More  alludes  to  the  "  counterfayte  wars  "  and  peace  made  with 
*'  holy  ceremonies  to  blind  the  eyes  of  the  common  people." 
Utopia  (ed.  Lumby),  p.  52. 

*  Excerpta  Historica,  pp.  98,  108,  111,  124. 

3  City  Chron.,  pp.  193,  194,  212,  213;  Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.  Ill, 
App.  240. 


276  HENRY     VII  [1485-1509 

not  above  suspicion.  The  benevolence  taken  in  1491 
in  anticipation  of  the  French  war  had  the  quasi-legal 
sanction  of  a  Great  Council.  Private  individuals  who 
were  reputed  to  be  wealthy  were  approached  by 
specially  appointed  royal  commissioners,  and  asked 
to  contribute  to  the  king's  necessities  definite  sums 
fixed  with  reference  to  their  supposed  property.  It 
is  in  connection  with  these  benevolences  that  the 
Chancellor  won  unenviable  fame  as  the  supposed  in- 
ventor of  the  profitable  dilemma  of  "  Morton's  fork." 
The  assumption  of  a  free-will  gift  barely  veiled  the 
true  nature  of  these  demands,  but  a  few  years  later, 
in  1495,  Parliament  gave  a  legal  basis  to  the  tax  and 
empowered  the  king  to  collect  arrears.^  It  was  a 
fatally  easy  way  of  raising  money,  produced  large 
sums  with  the  minimum  of  general  discontent,  and 
kept  in  check  men  whose  wealth  might  have  made 
them  formidable.^ 

Benevolences,  though  strictly  speaking  illegal,  were 
not  glaringly  so,  and  they  had  the  sanction  of  custom. 
But  in  later  years  Henry's  methods  became  more  and 
more  questionable. 

The  darker  side  of  the  financial  history  of  the  reign 
gathers  round  the  names  of  Empson  and  Dudley, 
described  by  Hall  as  "  two  ravenynge  wolves  "  with 
a  "  garde  of  false  perjured  persons  apperteignynge 
to  them."  Dudley  was  a  lawyer  of  a  good  Sussex 
family,  who  had  been  made  a  member  of  the  Privy 
Council  soon  after  the  king's  accession.     He  was  a 

1   11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  10. 

*  The  scandalous  proceedings  against  Capell,  the  London  alderman, 
fall  well  within  the  earlier  period.  A  case  brought  into  the  Covirt 
of  Requests  throws  new  light  on  Capell's  character.  He  was  bold 
enough  to  deny  that  the  king  had  unlimited  authority  in  the  city 
of  London.     Court  of  Requests  (Selden  Soc),  p.  8. 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE      277 

man  of  great  ability.     In  his  book  the  Tree  of  the 
Commonwealth,  \mtten  in  1509,  he  warns  the  young 
king  against  the  very  evils  with  which  his  name  is 
associated,  denouncing  them  with  the  eloquence  for 
which  he  was  famous.     Empson,  though  of  humble 
birth — he  was  the  son  of  a  sieve-maker — had  been 
chosen  as  Speaker  of  the  Parliament  of   1491.     As 
early  as  1496  a  proclamation  of  Warbeck's  had  pil- 
loried him  as  responsible  with  Fox  for  the  exactions. 
From  the  poverty  of  the  people  in  general  the  large 
fortunes  of  merchants  and  others  were  beginning  to 
emerge.     These  accmnulations  of  capital  were  reached 
by  the  notorious  activities  of  Empson  and  Dudley. 
The   evil   spread  like  a   canker,    and   by  1500  they 
had  reduced  their   practices   to  a   system  and  were 
all-powerful   in   finance.      The   unscrupulous   devices 
hitherto  occasionally  adopted  grew  into  habitual  ex- 
tortions.   Together  they  "  turned  law  and  justice  into 
wormwood  and  rapine  "  ;  they  were  "  the  king's  horse- 
leaches  and  shearers,  bold  men  and  careless  of  fame, 
and  that  took  toll  of  their  master's  grist."     This  vivid 
phrase  is  illustrated  by  many  a  dark  story  of  oppres- 
sion and  wrong.     Brutality  and  chicanery,  espionage 
and    blackmail,    were   the   instruments   of   their    in- 
genious  wickedness  ;     they   terrorised   the   rich   and 
trampled   on   law   and   justice.       The   possession   of 
wealth  was  punished  as  if  it  were  a  crime.     They 
drew  over  England  a  net  which  few  men  of  position 
or  substance  escaped.     The  estates  of  the  wards  of 
the  Crown  were  crippled  by  the  exactions  of  huge 
fines  at  their  coming  of  age  ;  many  manors  were  un- 
justly claimed  as  held  in   chief  of  the  Crown,   and 
owing  to  the  years  of  civil  war,  proof  to  the  contrary, 
if  dared,  was  difficult.     The  worst  feature  of  the  whole 
sordid  business  was  the  perversion  of  law  and  justice 


278  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

by  the  infliction  of  enormous  fines  for  the  breach  of  old 
statutes  that  mouldered  forgotten,  and  it  is  probable 
that  Empson  and  Dudley  were  themselves  the  origi- 
nators of  this  policy  of  extortion  under  cover  of  the 
law  that  they  carried  to  such  shameful  lengths.  The 
worst  features  appeared  after  1495,  when  an  Act  was 
passed  allowing  judges  to  initiate  proceedings  for 
minor  offences  on  the  information  of  private  indi- 
viduals. As  a  result  a  vile  mob  of  informers  sprang 
up  to  drag  innocent  offenders  against  a  forgotten 
code  into  the  clutches  of  their  money-making  machine. 
Upon  these  "  dishonest,  cunningly-devised,  and  false 
accusations  "  huge  fines  were  imposed.^  The  perse- 
cution of  William  Capell,  of  Thomas  Kneysworth, 
the  Lord  Mayor,  and  the  ruin  brought  upon  Sir 
Robert  Plumpton,  of  which  we  have  details,^  gives 
us  an  idea  of  the  treatment  of  a  host  of  forgotten 
men  who  suffered  from  a  similar  abuse  of  the  king's 
office  as  the  foundation  of  justice.  The  necessary 
verdicts  were  obtained  from  juries  by  a  system  of 
mingled  terrorism  and  bribery.  Letters  came  do%Mi 
to  sheriffs  directing  them  in  the  way  they  should  go, 
obstinate  jurors  were  fined  and  imprisoned,  and  the 
Privy  Council  dictated  verdicts  to  the  judges.  The 
inventors  of  these  corrupt  de\ices  were  themselves 
corrupt — "  They  preyed  upon  the  people  both  like 
tame  hawks  for  their  master  and  like  wild  hawks  for 
themselves,"  and  the  ^^ctim  who  got  caught  in  the 
new  fiscal  machinery  could  sometimes  obtain  his 
release  by  bribing  one  of  the  presiding  mechanics. 
"  Noble  men  grudged,  meane  men  kycked,  poore  men 

1  The  Earl  of  Northumberland  was  fined  £10,000. 

*  See  Plumpton  Corresp.,  cvi.-cxiv.,  147,  151-4,  161-2,  167-70, 
183-86;  CUy  Chron.,  pp.  195,  199,  205,  261,  262;  Andre,  Vita, 
108,  126  ;   Year  Book,  10  Hen.  VII.,  fo.  7. 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE       279 

lamented,  preachers  openly  at  Paules  Crosse  and  other 
places  exclamed,  rebuked  and  detested,  but  yet  they 
would  never  amende."  In  spite  of  the  popular  hatred 
of  the  king's  jackals,  the  system  was  continued  to  the 
end  of  the  reign. 

The  fact  that  it  was  hugely  profitable  would  per- 
haps have  been  sufficient  for  Henry,  but  even  con- 
temporaries could  see  in  the  king's  methods  something 
more  than  wholesale  robbery.  Polydor  Vergil  noticed 
that  the  king  singled  out  the  very  wealthy  for  his 
attentions,  more  with  a  viev^  of  keeping  them 
humble  than  from  covetousness  ;  and  Ayala  that 
the  king  feared  that  riches  would  make  his  sub- 
jects insolent.'  Henry  had  to  the  full  the  Tudor 
jealousy  of  subjects  who  had  great  wealth  or  a  great 
position.  A  phrase  of  More's  simas  up  the  king's 
attitude  :  "  No  abundance  of  gold  can  be  sufficient  for 
a  prince  .  .  .  whereas  on  the  other  part  neade  and 
povertie  doth  holde  and  keep  under  stowte  courages, 
and  maketh  them  patient  perforce,  takynge  from 
them  bolde  and  rebellynge  stomakes."  He  wished 
to  see  them  all  suitably  humble,  sensible  of  their 
dependence  on  royal  favour  and  unable  to  compete 
with  the  magnificence  of  the  Crown.  It  seems,  how- 
ever, to  be  pushing  the  defence  of  his  hateful 
methods  too  far  to  \^ew  them  from  the  standpoint 
of  a  struggle  with  capital.-  Though  we  may  agree 
that  the  heavy  fines  which  crushed  possible  opponents 
were  not  due  to  personal  avarice,  nothing  can  palliate 
the  abuses  which  poisoned  the  stream  of  justice  at  its 
source. 

The  king's   genuine   financial   reforms   come   as   a 

1  Pol.  Verg.,  613,  616  ;   Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  p.  177. 
«  Busch,  op.  cit.,  298. 


280  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

relief  after  the  story  of  his  extortions.  When  it 
came  to  a  question  of  expending  his  ill-gotten  gain, 
he  dropped  the  character  of  a  highway  robber  and 
found  himself  at  home  in  that  of  a  comfortable, 
thrifty  merchant. 

A  considerable  reform  was  carried  out  in  Henry's 
first  Parliament,  which  pro\ided  that  £14,000  yearly 
derived  from  Crown  lands  and  customs  duties  should 
be  appropriated  to  the  support  of  the  royal  house- 
hold, and  a  sum  of  £2105.  19s.  to  the  expenses  of  the 
king's  wardrobe.^  The  change  was  very  popular. 
It  removed  the  old  grievances  about  excessive  pur- 
veyance for  the  necessities  of  the  court  when  on  its 
travels,  and  did  away  with  the  peculations  of  court 
officials  who  had  made  very  inadequate  pa\Tnents  for 
the  goods  and  provisions  they  took  from  the  people. 
This  system  of  appropriating  fixed  sources  of  re- 
venue to  definite  expenses  was  carried  further.  The 
customs  of  the  Staple  were  assigned  to  the  main- 
tenance of  Calais,  and  a  fixed  revenue  was  allotted 
for  the  upkeep  of  the  border  forts  of  Berwick  and 
Carlisle. - 

This  strict  dealing  with  money  was  carried  through 
all  the  spending  departments.  Accounts  were 
minutely  and  rigidly  kept,  and  the  strictness  required 
from  officials  bound  the  king  himself.  The  "  Privy 
Purse  Expenses  "  are  an  example  of  his  account- 
keeping,  though  Bacon's  story  of  the  king  laboriously 
jotting  down  accounts  in  a  note-book  he  kept  at  his 
side,  is  a  caricature  of  his  carefulness. 

1  Bot.  Pari,  vi.  299-304.  See  also  11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  62  ;  Stat., 
ii.  627-30  ;  Bot.  Pari.,  497-502.  Edward  IV.  had  made  a  similar 
experiment  (Bot.  Pari.,  vi.  198),  but  the  change  introduced  by 
Henry  VII.  was  permanent. 

*  Bot.  Pari,  vi.  394  ;    11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  16. 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE       281 

As  a  result  of  sa\'ings  and  exactions,  reforms  and 
malpractices,  Henry  succeeded  in  his  aim  of  accumu- 
lating a  great  treasure.  Long  before  his  death  his 
reputation  for  wealth  had  spread  through  Europe. 
According  to  one  report  he  had  accumulated  so 
much  gold  that  he  was  supposed  "to  have  more 
than  well  nigh  all  the  kings  of  Christendom " ;  ^ 
'and  yet  at  his  death  he  left  a  huge  hoard  of 
treasure,  as  well  as  magnificent  plate  and  jewels,  to 
his  son.- 

In  the  later  years  of  his  reign  there  was  a  consider- 
able change  in  Henry's  constitutional  methods.     In 
spite  of  the  control  he  had  obtained  over  Parliament, 
he  showed  a  tendency  to  govern  without  even  such 
nominal  check.     Parliament  was  only  summoned  once 
during  the  last  thirteen  years  of  the  reign,  and  when 
it  met,  in  1504,  Henry  announced  that  he  did  not 
,mean    to    call    Parliament    together    again    without 
"  great    necessity    and    urgent    cause."     The    reason 
'may  perhaps  be  fomid  in  his  irregular  but  lucrative 
''financial  methods,  and  in  the  impatience  of  opposition 
''that  came  from  advancing  age  and   familiarity  with 
supreme  power.     Henry  no  longer  needed  Parliament 
as  a  subservient  ally  to  give  support  to  an  usurping 
,dynasty,  and  he  shirked  a  conflict  over  finance  as  an 
unnecessary  irritation  to  a  powerful  monarch  whose 
rule  was  undisputed  and  undisturbed.     The  prestige 
of   the   Crown  grew  with  every  year  that  went  by 

»  Brown,  Yen.  Cat.,  i.  p.  346. 

*  Bacon's  estimate  of  the  treasxrre  at  £1,800,000  has  been  followed 
by  later  historians,  though  the  source  of  it  is  not  apparent.  It  was 
certainly  not  too  high  an  estimate.  In  1497  the  ililanese  envoy 
estimated  Henr>'"8  savings  at  £1,350,000,  to  which  he  added  £1 12,500 
yearly  (Brown,  No.  751,  795,  942).  In  1509  he  was  described  as 
"  the  wisest  and  richest  lord  now  known  to  the  world." 


282  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

without  a  meeting  of  the  people's  representatives. 
Parhament  met  so  seldom  that  it  took  on  the  appear- 
ance of  an  exceptional  and  occasional  part  of  the 
State  machinery,  the  Crown  representing  the  per- 
manent and  vital  part  of  it. 

The  king's  personal  taste  for  autocratic  government 
came  to  the  front.  By  the  increasing  use  of  letters 
patent  and  proclamations  he  extended  the  sphere  of 
his  personal  action.  By  proclamation  he  prohibited 
commercial  intercourse  with  the  Netherlands,  and  by 
proclamation  allowed  its  renewal.^  Every  year  he 
grasped  more  power. 

His  provision  for  the  defence  of  his  throne  and 
kingdom  was  thorough  and  effective.  In  naval  affairs 
he  did  his  usual  pioneer  work.  At  his  accession 
there  were  apparently  only  four  ships  owned  by  the 
Crown,  there  was  no  reserve  of  naval  stores,  and 
pirates  roved  the  Channel  unchecked.  His  reign  is 
a  very  significant  one  in  the  history  of  the  navy.  He 
adopted  the  policy  of  building  ships  for  use  as  men- 
of-war  only,  in  order  to  have  a  nucleus  to  strengthen 
the  hastily  armed  ships  hired  from  the  merchants. 
He  added  to  the  royal  na\y  the  two  finest  men-of- 
war  ever  seen  in  England,  the  Henry  Grace  a  Dieu 
(afterwards  kno\\'n  as  the  Regent)  and  the  Sovereign. 
Both  were  built  in  England  under  the  superintendence 
of  Bray  and  Guildford,  and  were  launched  in  1488 
and  1489.-     The  first  dry  dock  in  England  was  built 

'  He  not  infrequently  enlarged  the  scope  of  Acts  of  Parliament 
by  proclamation,  e.g.  Proclamations  dealt  with  the  coinage,  regu- 
lated trade,  ordered  the  taking  up  of  knighthoods,  &c.  e^.  City 
Chron.,  p.  212. 

*  In  1497  two  smaller  ships,  the  Sweepstake  and  the  Mary  Fortune, 
followed.  The  Margaret  was  captured  from  Scotland,  and  the 
Carvel  of  Eu  and  the  King's  Bark  were  purchased.  The  new  ships 
built  by  Henry  were  the  first  to  be  fitted  with  portholes. 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE       283 

by  Henry  at  Portsmouth  in  1496.^  With  character- 
istic economy  the  king  adopted  a  poUcy  of  hiring  out 
his  men-of-war  to  merchants  when  they  were  not 
required  for  the  royal  service,  and  the  Sovereign  once 
took  a  trading  voyage  to  the  Levant.  The  effect  of 
the  Navigation  Laws  on  the  development  of  the 
merchant  fleet  has  already  been  noticed.-  Further, 
he  inaugurated  the  bounty  system,  a  bonus  of  about 
5s.  a  ton  being  given  to  shipbuilders  who  constructed 
suitable  vessels,^  began  a  naval  storehouse  at  Green- 
wich, and  started  the  manufacture  of  heavy  guns  in 
England,  usually  attributed  to  Henry  VIII.^ 

The  naw  under  Henry  VII.  became  a  weapon  of 
offence,  not  a  mere  means  of  transport  for  troops. 
In  the  blockade  of  Sluys  in  1492,  and  in  the  height  of 
the  Perkin  Warbeck  difficulty,  it  did  valuable  work. 
But  the  important  point  is  not  the  actual  exploits  of 
the  fleet — though  they  were  creditable  enough — but 
the  beginning  of  the  naval  development,  which,  fol- 
lowed up  by  Henry  VIII.  and  triumphing  under 
Elizabeth,  left  to  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  century 
England  the  ambition  for  the  conomand  of  the  seas.^ 

Henry's  unambitious  land  policy  made  the  develop- 
ment of  the  army  less  necessary,  and  therefore  less 
striking,  than  that  of  the  navy.  Fortune  as  usual 
fought  for  the  king.  A  great  change  in  the  art  of 
war  was  going  on.  The  increasing  use  of  gunpowder 
reduced    the    glittering    army    of    feudalism    to    im- 

1  The  interesting  question  as  to  where  Henry  got  his  idea  of  a 
dry  dock  from  cannot  be  settled.  There  were  no  such  docks  in 
France  or  Spain.     Oppenheim,  Naval  Accounts,  xxsiv.-xxxvii. 

*  See  above,  p.  164. 

'  This  pohcy  was  pursued  by  Henry  VIII.  and  Elizabeth.  Oppen- 
heim, Naval  Accounts,  xxix.,  xxx. 

*  Oppenlieim,  op.  cit.,  xxx.,  xxxiii.,  84  n. 
'  Clowes,  Royal  Navy. 


284  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

potence,  and   diminished  the  chances  and  therefore 
the  frequency  of  rebelhons.     The  strict  watch  and 
ward    kept    at    Calais,   Berwick,  and    the    Tower    of 
London — the  gates  and  the  key  of  the  kingdom — 
did  not  escape  foreign  observers.     In  the  Tower  the 
king  kept  a  great  store  of  the  heavy  artillery  that 
decided  the  fate  of  thrones,  and  the  gloomy  fortress 
on   the   river   played   a   great   part   all    through   the 
Tudor  period.      The  Italian  observer  reported  that 
Henry  meant  to  keep  his  hold  on  the  realm  he  had 
won ;  he  had  shown  in  the  crises  of  his  reign  "  that  if 
worsted  in  the  open  field  he  would  defend  himself  in 
the   fortresses.  .  .  .  He   did  not  mean  to  wager  the 
Crown  on  the  issue  of  a  single  battle."  ^     By  crushing 
the  power  of  the  great  nobles,   and  by  suppressing 
livery  and  maintenance,   he   secured  control   of  the 
ordinary  militia  and  left  it  without  a  rival.     Thus  he 
was  able  to  put  into  the  field  a  force  which,  with  the 
help  of  a  train  of  artillery,  was  sufficient  to  crush  the 
various  rebellions.     The  institution  of  the  yeomen  of 
the  guard,  the  small   company  of  "  proved  archers, 
strong,  valiant,  and  bold  men,"  that  added  dignity  to 
the  king's  person,  attracted  considerable  notice  at  the 
time,-  and  was  later  the  nucleus  of  the  standing  army. 
There  are  a  few  expressions  to  be  found  in  contem- 
porary historians  which  hint  at  the  emplo}*ment  of 
German  mercenaries.     Thus  medieval  traditions  and 
modem  methods  went  hand  in  hand/' 

But  Henry's  military  and  naval  arrangements  were 
not  the  key  to  the  situation.  His  was  not  a  blood- 
stained military  despotism ;  but  a  rule  that,  depending 

1  Ital.  Rel.,  pp.  45,  46.  =  Ibid.,  p.  39.     See  above,  p.  42. 

3  Andr6,  Annalea,  127  ;  Pol.  Verg.,  567  ;  Ital.  Rd.,  45,  47  ;  Brown. 
No.  751.  See  Fortescue,  Hist,  of  British  Army,  1,  77-8,  108-14, 
for  a  full  accomit  of  the  changes  introduced  by  Henry  VTI. 


U85-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE       285 

upon  statecraft  and  the  balancing  of  opposing  forces, 
governing  by  persuasion  and  insinuation,  brought  the 
king  into  very  intimate  relations  with  his  subjects,  and 
only  at  the  end  showed  the  bold  hand  of  tyranny. 
There  are  many  glimpses  of  the  way  in  which  the 
king's  compelling,  if  not  agreeable,  personality  swayed 
events.  Royal  letters,  comparatively  few  as  they  are, 
show  how  intimate  the  king's  relations  with  liis  sub- 
jects were.  Those  who  helped  him  at  critical  moments 
received  graciously  worded  letters  thanking  them  for 
their  good  and  agreeable  service.^  Henry's  influ- 
ence over  those  with  whom  he  came  personally  into 
contact  seems  to  have  been  very  strong.  The  king 
evidently  realised  the  extent  of  his  persuasive  power, 
and  was  anxious  to  subject  to  it  men  as  diverse 
in  character  as  James  of  Scotland,  the  Earl  of 
Kildare,  and  the  Archduke  Philip.  All  the  really 
responsible  posts  in  the  kingdom  were  held  by  men 
who  constantly  came  into  contact  with  the  king. 
"  He  was  affable  and  both  well  and  fair  spoken," 
writes  Bacon,  "  and  would  use  strange  sweetness  and 
blandishments  where  he  desired  to  effect  or  persuade 
an}i;hing  he  took  to  heart." 

But  the  king's  personal  influence  was  used  to 
coerce  as  well  as  to  cajole.  The  true  Tudor  note, 
imperious,  high-handed,  threatening,  is  often  struck 
in  Henry's  letters.  Sir  William  Say,  who  thought  of 
overawing  the  next  sessions  by  an  "  unlawful  assembly 
and  conventicle,"  received  a  peremptory  letter  from 
his  sovereign,  ordering  him  to  come  to  the  king  "  to 
hear  his  mind  in  the  matter."  -  The  bailiffs  of  Lan- 
caster who  had  "  taken  lyveries  and  conysaunces  to 

1  e.g.  see  Plumpton  Correap.,  latro.,  xcviii. 

2  Ellis,  Orig.  Letters,  I.  (i.),  40. 


286  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

the  great  damage  of  the  town  "  were  terrified  by  a 
sharp  letter  from  the  king  ;  the  men  of  Leicester 
who  "  of  their  obstinacie  and  frowardnes  "  presumed 
to  use  their  own  stalls,  shambles,  and  ovens  instead 
of  those  "  bilded  for  their  ease  "  (and  for-  the  king's 
profit  !)  were  roundly  rebuked.^  The  whole  history 
of  the  king's  relations  with  the  great  and  disaffected 
city  of  York  are  a  splendid  instance  of  his  autocratic 
methods.-  He  did  not  hesitate  to  interfere  with 
municipal  elections,  ev^en  in  the  capital  itself,  where 
in  1505  a  properly  elected  sheriff  was  set  aside,  and 
the  return  of  the  king's  nominee  at  a  new  election 
ordered  and  secured. 

The  deterioration  in  the  method  and  spirit  of 
Henry's  government  in  his  later  years  has  already  been 
mentioned.  It  seems  as  if  the  king's  character,  which 
shone  in  adversity,  was  warped  by  success.  The 
harsh  methods,  excusable  in  danger,  became  harsher 
when  obedience  invited  a  milder  rule.  To  this  period 
belong  the  things  which  have  been  blots  on  the 
king's  fame,  the  detestable  financial  methods,  the  spy 
system,  and  the  base  acti^^ty  of  the  informers. 

The  power  of  the  Crown  threatened  the  liberties  it 
had  formerly  guarded.  A  statute  of  1495,  passed  by 
the  Parliament  which  has  so  many  valuable  laws  to 
its  credit,^  had  introduced  the  odious  system  of  the  in- 
formers, which  was  certainly  foreign  to  English  juris- 
prudence. The  Act  which  was  passed  to  provide 
against  the  corruption  of  jurors,  authorised  any  indi- 
\ddual  to  lay  information  before  any  justice  of  the 
peace,  or  assize  judge,  who  could  institute  proceedings 
in  his  own  court  against  the  alleged  offender,  and  try 

1  Campbell,  Mat.,  ii.  275,  369-70,  461-2,  476-7. 

*  Gent.  Mag.,  N.  S.,  vol.  xxxvi.,  p.  460. 

'  It  passed  65  statutes,  a  very  large  number  for  the  time. 


1485-1509]     LEGISLATION    AND    FINANCE       287 

the  case  A^thout  a  jury.     The  only  safeguard  against 
malicious  prosecution  was  that  the  informer  had  to 
pay  the  costs  of  the  person  wrongfully  accused,  if  he 
failed  to  make  good  his  charge,^  and  it  appears  that 
this  safeguard  was  often  evaded.-     By  the  statute  of 
1504,  inflicting  further  penalties  on  maintenance,  the 
same  informer  system  was  set  in  motion.     Here  we 
have  the  fu-st  appearance  of  the  sinister  machinery  of 
espionage   and    paid   informers   which   is   frequently 
characteristic  of  despotism,  and  the  first  glimpse  of 
the  process  by  which  the  court    of    Star  Chamber 
degenerated  into  the  hated  weapon  of  weak  t>Tanny. 
This  system  of  '*  secret    spials,"    the   king's  "  flies 
and  familiars,"  has  earned  well -merited   obloquy  as 
an  excrescence  of  foreign  origin,  alien  to  the  English 
character,    foisted   by   Henry   on   his    people.      This 
system  of  espionage,  which  grew  out  of  the  dangerous 
circumstances  of  the  early  years,  when  treason  and 
rebeUion  were  bred  in  rumour  and  whisper,  suited  the 
darker  side  of  the  king's  temper,  and  was  continued 
long   after   the   dangers    that   might    have    partially 
excused  it  were  over.     There  are  many  evidences  of 
its  prevalence ;  Henry's  agents  varied  from  the  Scotch 
nobles,    whose    repulsive    dealings    with    him    have 
already  been  noticed,  down   to   the  "  monk   wdth  a 
berde,"    whose   investigations    in    Ireland    met   with 
their   inextravagant    reward.      Even   the    courts    of 
foreign   princes   harboured    Henry's   spies,   and   the 
actions  of  the  English  refugees  were  watched   and 
reported   on.^     The    man    who    spoke    seditiously  of 
the  Crown — "  against  our  majesty  royal  "  is  the  sig- 

»  11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  3  ;   Stat.,  ii.  570.  ^  Ital.  Eel,  pp.  333-4. 

'  These  underground  methods  are  illustrated  by  an  intrigue 
which  took  place  in  1503.  The  story  is  more  than  usually  fan- 
tastic ;  it  IB  difficult  to  be  sure  who  was  traitor  and  who  spy.  See 
Hiet.  Soc.  Trans.  (N.  S.),  xvi.  133-151,  xviii.  157-195. 


288  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

nificant  phrase  used — sat  in  the  pillory  and  lost  his 
ears.^  Municipalities  were  ordered  to  put  down 
"  contrivers  of  forged  news,"  the  Bishop  of  Durham 
is  ordered  to  search  "  the  caskettes,  males,  and 
tronkkes  "  of  suspected  persons  in  his  franchise.- 

And  yet  such  was  the  strength  of  his  position,  that 
his  increasingly  despotic  rule  became  increasingly 
popular.  His  policy  spared  the  common  people  and 
pressed  hardly  on  wealthy  indi\-iduals,  depressed  the 
great  nobles  and  favoured  the  "  faithful  commons," 
preserved  the  constitutional  forms  of  popular  freedom, 
while  in  individual  cases  the  weight  of  despotism 
wrested  these  forms  to  the  king's  own  ends. 
Working  through  the  venerable  forms  of  the  consti- 
tution, the  king  allied  himself  with  the  most  stable 
and  at  the  ^ame  time  the  most  progressive  elements 
of  society.  Commerce  and  capitalism,  the  forces 
that  have  been  conspicuous  in  the  modern  world, 
were  enlisted  under  Henry's  standard.  Every  gift 
of  nature  and  fortune  marked  him  out  for  kingship, 
and  every  nerve  was  strained  by  this  bold,  self- 
willed,  dominating  man  to  secure  his  grip  on  the 
kingdom  he  had  won.  He  never  lost  sight  of 
this  object.  His  diplomatic  successes,  his  zeal  for 
peace  and  chain  of  marriage  alliances,  his  firm  treat- 
ment of  Ireland,  and  successful  commercial  policy,  all 
added  prestige  and  security  to  his  despotism.  Every 
success  he  gained  abroad  made  him  more  formidable 
at  home.  When  he  died,  the  great  work  he  had 
undertaken  was  done.  He  altered  the  balance  of  the 
English  constitution  for  more  than  a  century,  and  left 
to  his  successors  the  fabric  of  a  despotism  touched  with 
the  Tudor  characteristics  of  popularity  and  success. 

»  Oent.  Mag.,  loc.  cit.,  460,  462 ;   City  Chronicle,  256. 
a  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  9&-100. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

IRELAND:    THE   RENAISSANCE:    VOYAGES   OF 
DISCOVERY 

Ireland  at  the  accession  of  Henry  VII.  reproduced 
in  an  exaggerated  form  all  the  evils  of  anarchy  and 
violence  that  were  to  be  found  in  England.  The  central 
government,  too  weak  to  check  disorder  even  in 
England,  was  powerless  to  repress  outrage  in  distant 
Ireland.  There  tribal  war  flourished ;  the  yoke  of 
England  lay  lightly  upon  the  people.  The  patriarchal 
system  of  clan  government  still  remained  among  the 
Celtic  tribes.  The  authority  of  the  nominal  govern- 
ment was  non-existent  outside  the  English  Pale,  a 
strip  of  territory  about  thirty  miles  wide  stretching 
from  Dublin  to  Dundalk  along  the  coast  nearest  to 
England.  Where  the  Norman  conquerors  had  landed 
and  first  settled,  their  descendants,  the  Anglo-Irish 
nobility,  still  lived,  maintaining  their  grip  upon  even 
this  little  fraction  by  building  a  chain  of  castles. 
But  Irish  influences  had  leapt  the  barrier,  and  the 
Anglo-Irish  lords  of  the  Pale  became  year  by  year  less 
English  in  their  habits  and  sympathies  and  less  alien 
from  the  wild  Irish  who  howled  outside  the  Pale. 
The  strife  within  the  ring  of  castles  was  bitterer  and 
more  constant  than  the  tribal  wars  without.  The 
two  great  ruling  families — the  Butlers  and  the  Geral- 
dines — had  quarrelled  with  more  or  less  violence  for 
centuries,  and  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  had  added  fuel  to 

289  J, 


290  HENRY    VII  [1485 

the  flame.^  They,  of  course,  took  different  sides,  and 
attached  themselves  fanatically  to  the  parties  of  the 
red  and  the  white  rose,  whose  fortunes  cannot  have 
affected  them  very  deei)ly. 

The  })ower  of  the  English  Crown  was  shadowy 
enough.  English  kings  had  borne  the  title  of  Lords 
of  Ireland  for  hundreds  of  years  ;  they  had  taken  up 
the  burden  of  responsibility  without  power,  a  burden, 
it  must  be  confessed,  they  bore  very  negligently.  It 
was  the  custom  to  delegate  the  power  of  the  king  to 
a  Viceroy  or  Lord-Lieutenant,  who  was  usually  a 
member  of  the  royal  family.  The  Lord-Lieutenant, 
however,  was  but  the  shadow  of  a  shade.  The  real 
power  lay  with  another  official.  The  plan  had  long 
been  adopted  of  making  the  Irish  govern  themselves 
by  appointing  one  of  the  Anglo-Irish  lords  as  Lord- 
Deputy.  It  was  the  holder  of  this  office  who  exer- 
cised the  only  authority  that  was  recognised  in 
Ireland,  but  the  sword  of  justice  in  the  hand  of  the 
Lord-Deputy  did  not  reach  beyond  the  English  Pale. 
Even  within  the  Pale  it  was  the  weapon  of  a  faction 
rather  than  the  arm  of  the  law,  and  was  quite  as 
likely  to  be  used  against  as  for  the  far-off  English 
king.  Authority  of  a  kind,  however,  the  Lord-Deputy 
certainly  had,  and  the  office  was  therefore  a  bone  of 
contention  among  the  rival  parties.  Andre  did  no 
injustice  to  Ireland  when  he  described  it  as  "  a 
country  of  savages,  a  den  of  thieves  and  murderers, 
where  there  is  neither  peace,  love,  nor  concord,  but 
only  treason  and  the  foulest  deeds."  - 

Thus  Henry  VII.  when  he  had  secured   his  hold 
upon  England,  w^as  faced  by  an  Irish  problem  as  acute 

1  For  an  account  of  the  feuds,  see  Book  of  Howth,  i.  177. 
"  Andrd,  Les  douze  triomphes  de  Henry  VII.,  Memoriala  (ed. 
Gairdner),  147. 


1486]  IRELAND  291 

as  any  of  its  endless  line  has  been.  The  state  of 
Ireland  was  a  menace  to  his  scarcely  established 
throne.  If  he  were  to  be  safe  in  England,  he  must 
make  good  his  hold  upon  a  country  of  which  he  was 
nominally  lord,  but  where  men  of  his  race  were  safe 
only  on  the  edge  of  the  country,  and  where  even 
within  this  strip  the  supreme  authority  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  hereditary  foes  of  his  house. 

Ownership  of  broad  lands  in  Ireland  had  given  the 
house  of  York  some  influence  there.  Richard  Duke 
of  York's  period  of  office  as  Viceroy  was  a  brilliant 
memory.  He  had  declared  for  an  independent  Irish 
Parliarnent ;  his  son.  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  had 
adopted  a  similar  policy  of  conciliation,  and  tradition 
associated  the  Yorkists  with  the  dream  of  Irish  in- 
dependence. The  Geraldines,  who  supported  the 
Yorkist  party,  were  the  most  powerful  family  in 
Ireland.  One  Earl  of  Kildare  had  been  Lord-Deputy 
under  Edward  lY.,  and  his  son  had  held  the  office 
under  Richard  III.  Their  rivals,  the  Lancastrian 
Butlers,  had  been  disgraced  and  attainted,  and  the 
head  of  the  family,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Ormond,  was 
living  in  England. 

The  king  did  not  make  any  changes  at  first.  The 
Duke  of  Bedford  was  given  the  empty  title  of  Lord- 
Lieutenant,^  and  the  outlawed  Butlers  were  restored 
to  their  estates.  The  Earl  of  Ormond,  who  resided 
in  England,  became  a  member  of  the  Council,  was 
appointed  chamberlain  to  the  queen,  and  received  a 
pension  and  other  marks  of  royal  favour.  His 
bastard  cousin,  Sir  James  Ormond  (who  is  often  called 
Earl  of    Ormond    by  Irish  writers),  was  practically 

1  Campbell,  Materials,  i.  384.  He  was  to  hold  office  for  two  years, 
but  all  appointments  and  promotions  in  Ireland  were  reserved  for 
the  Crown.     In  1488  his^appointment  was  renewed.     Ibid.,  ii.  351. 


292  HENRY    VII  [1487 

the  head  of  the  clan  in  Ireland,  and  represented  the 
absent  earl.^ 

Though  the  hostility  of  the  Geraldines  to  a  Lan- 
castrian king  was  unpleasantly  certain,  Henry  dared 
not  interfere  with  them.  He  confirmed  the  Earl  of 
Kildare  in  his  title  of  Lord-Deputy;  his  brother, 
Thomas  Fitzgerald,  remained  Chancellor  of  Ireland. 
Thus  the  Yorkist  party,  defeated  in  England,  were 
still  supreme  in  Ireland,  and  ready  to  take  any  op- 
portunity of  thwarting  the  king.  Lambert  Simnel's 
appearance  was  an  opportunity,  and  Irish  enthusiasm 
crowned  him  king  in  Dublin,  and  carried  him  over 
to  make  his  ill-fated  attempt  on  England.- 

One  or  two  towns,  the  most  important  of  which 
was  Waterford,^  had  held  aloof  from  the  pretender, 
but  the  rest  of  the  country  had  flaunted  its  dis- 
loyalty. Every  one  of  note,  from  the  Lord-Deputy  and 
the  archbishop  downwards,  had  dabbled  in  the  plot. 
Henry  obviously  could  not  punish  the  whole  country 
as  rebels;  clemency  was  the  only  possible  attitude. 
Again  he  ignored  what  he  could  not  punish,  and  the 
Irish  rebels  were  not  included  in  the  attainders  of 
the  English  Parliament,"'  Even  after  the  battle  of 
Stoke  had  disposed  of  Lambert  Simnel,  the  Geraldines 
in  Ireland  remained  in  revolt,  and  Dublin  itself  was 
in  their  hands.  The  loyal  town  of  Waterford  was 
rewarded  by  a  letter  from  Henry  himself,  gi^^ng  them 
permission  to  capture  the  Geraldine  rebels  and  seize 
all  their  goods  bound  for  Dublin.'^ 

1  Campbell,  Materials,  i.  130,  295,  528.  -  See  above,  p.  63. 

»  It  had  given  shelter  to  the  Butlers  and  other  loyalists.  Feeling 
rose  so  high  that  Kildare  dared  not  trust  his  herald  within  the  walls 
of  the  to\vn. 

*  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  397  ;  L.  and  P.  Hen  VII.,  i.  383-4  ;  Book  of  Howth 
(Carew  Misc.  Papers.),  pp.  388,  472,  473. 

*  Carew  Papers,  p.  467. 


1488]  IRELAND  293 

In  May  1488  the  king  made  his  first  cautious  move 
towards  asserting  his  authority  in  Ireland.  He  en- 
trusted to  Sir  Richard  Edgecombe,  who  seems  to 
have  been  chosen  for  many  delicate  negotiations,  the 
difficult  task  of  trying  to  obtain  some  security  for 
the  future  good  behaviour  of  the  Anglo-Irish  lords. 
He  was  directed  to  receive  and  pardon  those  Irish 
who  would  submit  and  take  a  new  oath  of  allegiance, 
and  to  proceed  against  rebels  and  traitors.  He  was 
also  if  possible — and  this  was  given  a  very  important 
place  in  the  detailed  instructions  he  received  from  the 
king — to  induce  the  Earl  of  Kildare  by  the  offer  of  a 
safe  conduct  to  come  over  to  England  to  visit  the 
king.  But  Kildare  excused  himself,  and  Henry's  hope 
of  trying  the  effect  of  his  personal  influence  upon  the 
rebellious  earl  was  disappointed.  Edgecombe's  mission 
was  fairly  successful.  The  mayors  and  corporations 
of  Waterford,  Kjnsale,  Drogheda,  Trim,  and  even 
Dublin  took  the  oath  of  allegiance,  but  he  had  a 
hard  task  with  Kildare  and  his  followers.  The  earl 
kept  him  waiting  in  Dublin  over  a  week.  When  he 
at  last  arrived,  Edgecombe  received  him  without 
ceremony,  "  and  made  not  reverence  and  courtesy  to 
him  or  his  followers."  After  "  many  fayned  and 
unreasonable  delays,"  the  earl  and  his  men,  receiving 
promise  of  pardon,  made  their  submission.  In  spite 
of  Edgecombe's  "  right  fell  and  angry  words,"  they 
refused  to  give  surety  for  their  good  behaviour. 
"  They  would  rather  become  Irish  every  one  of  them," 
they  said,  and  Henry's  envoy  had  to  content  himself 
with  drawing  up  a  strictly  worded  oath.  This  did 
not  please  Kildare,  and  had  to  be  modified.  The  earl, 
on  21st  June  1488,  having  been  "  shriven  and 
assoiled  from  the  curse  that  he  stood  in  by  virtue  of 
the  Pope's  Bull,"  swore  allegiance  to  Henry,  holding 


294  HENRY    VII  [1488-9 

his  right  hand  over  the  host.  His  followers  and  the 
bishops  did  the  same,  and  a  general  pardon  was  pro- 
claimed.^ A  solemn  Te  Deiim  was  sung,  the  church 
bells  rang,  and  the  earl  wore  a  collar  of  the  king's 
livery  round  his  neck  as  he  rode  through  the  streets 
of  Dublin  When  Edgecombe  sailed  for  England  at 
the  beginning  of  August,  the  widespread  disaffection 
in  Ireland  was  masked  under  a  decent  veil  of  sub- 
mission and  obedience. 2 

Kildare,  emboldened  by  impunity,  set  up  a  reign  of 
terror  in  Ireland.  The  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  who, 
according  to  his  o\mi  account,  had  remained  loyal  to 
Henry  throughout  the  Lambert  Simnel  episode,  wrote 
a  letter  of  complaint  bringing  serious  charges  against 
the  earl,  and  suggesting  as  a  solution  of  the  difficulty 
that  he,  the  bishop,  should  be  appointed  as  chancellor 
to  keep  the  earl  in  check. ^  At  the  same  time  Kildare 
had  petitioned  Henry  for  confirmation  in  his  office 
of  Lord-Deputy  for  a  period  of  nine  or  ten  years, 
with  a  salary  of  £1000.  Negotiating  through  John 
Estrete,  receiver  of  taxes  in  Dublin,  Henry  promised 
him  a  safe  conduct  and  favourable  consideration  of 
his  petition,  on  condition  that  he  appeared  at  Henry's 
court  before  the  1st  of  August  1491.^ 

*  Edgecombe  had  taken  with  him  powers  for  a  general  pardon. 
Campbell,  Materials,  ii.  315-317. 

*  A  full  account  of  Edgecombe's  mission  is  given  in  Harris, 
Hibemica,  pp.  59-77,  where  Edgecombe's  detailed  report  is  printed. 

3  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  383-384. 

*  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  91-3.  There  has  been  considerable  diffi- 
culty in  assigning  an  exact  date  to  these  undated  instructions,  but 
Dr.  Busch  has  shown,  I  think  conclusively,  that  the  dates  usually 
given  (1486  or  earlier  still)  are  \vTong.  The  undated  letters  from 
Kildare  and  his  followers  printed  by  Gairdner,  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII., 
evidently  refer  to  these  instructions,  and  the  latter,  on  the  evidence 
brought  forward  by  Dr.  Busch  (England  under  the  Tudors,  chap.  i. 
note  11),  may  be  placed  in  July  1490. 


U90-1]  IRELAND  295 

Nearly  a  year  went  by  before  Kildare  wrote,  ex- 
cusing himself  for  his  non-appearance  in  very  dutiful 
language,  on  the  plea  that  his  presence  in  Ireland 
was  necessary  to  settle  the  feuds  between  his  cousins 
the  Earl  of  Desmond  and  the  Lord  Bourke.  He  made 
many  protestations  of  loyalty.  "  I  beseech  humbley 
your  noble  grace  to  be  my  gracious  lord,  for  I  am  and 
shal  be  durynge  my  lywe  your  true  knight  and  never 
shal  be  })roved  otherwise,"  and  so  on.  Letters  signed 
by  other  Irish  lords  supported  his  plea,  and  enlarged 
on  his  loyalty  and  on  the  fact  that  the  north  of 
Ireland  would  be  destroyed  by  the  king's  Irish 
enemies  in  his  absence,^  But  almost  at  the  very 
moment  when  these  dutiful  letters  were  being  sent 
to  Henry,  Kildare  and  Desmond  were  involving 
themselves  in  further  treachery.  The  support  given 
by  Kildare  to  Perkin  Warbeck,  when  he  appeared  in 
Ireland  in  the  autumn  of  1491,  has  already  been 
noticed.-  The  king  at  last  felt  himself  strong  enough 
to  punish  Kildare's  treachery,  and  on  11th  June  1492, 
Walter,  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  was  made  Deputy  in 
Kildare's  place.  Sir  James  Ormond,  who  had  been 
the  leader  of  the  army  sent  in  the  previous  December 
against  the  Irish  rebels,  was  made  Treasurer,  and 
Alexander  Plunkett  Chancellor  of  Ireland.^  All  the 
Kildares  were  therefore  deprived ;  Henry  refused  to 
receive  Kildare's  messengers,  and  the  disgraced  earl 
had  to  intercede  with  his  old  rival,  the  Earl  of 
Ormond,  to  use  his  influence  with  the  king.  He 
denied  that  he  had  "  aided,  comforted,  or  supported 
the  French  lad,"  and  tried  to  excite  Ormond's 
jealousy  about  the  favour  shown  by  Henry  to  his 
"  base  cousin."  *    Henry  remained  firm,  but  Ormond 

1  L.  and.  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  380-4.  «  See  above,  pp.  113-5. 

»  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  372-4  *  Ibid.,  ii.  53-6. 


296  HENRY    VII  [1492-3 

was  not  strong  enough  to  keep  order.  The  old  feud 
again  blazed  fiercely.  Butlers  and  Geraldines  wasted 
each  other's  lands  and  rioted  in  the  streets  of  Dublin.' 
A  meeting  of  the  leaders  held  in  the  cathedral  ended 
in  a  free  fight.  Sir  James  Ormond  took  refuge  in 
the  chapter-house,  and  refused  to  leave  his  refuge 
until  terms  of  agreement  had  been  settled,  and  even 
then  a  hole  had  to  be  cut  in  the  door  through  which 
Kildare  and  Ormond  shook  hands. 

It  was  clear  that  there  could  be  no  peace  in  Ireland 
while  Ormond  was  in  authority  and  Kildare  in  dis- 
grace. The  earl  again  sued  for  a  pardon,  which  he 
received  conditionally  on  22nd  March  1493,  pro- 
mising to  present  himself  in  England  before  the  1st  of 
October.  A  few  days  later  the  forfeiture  of  Kildare's 
lands  was  annulled,  on  condition  that  he  sent  his 
eldest  son  to  England  within  six  months.  This 
policy  of  subjecting  the  Irish  lords  to  the  influence 
of  an  English  education  was  imitated  and  carried  to 
much  greater  lengths  by  Henry  VIII. 

In  May  or  June  1493,  Kildare  and  several  other 
Irish  lords,  including  the  Lord  of  Howth  (to  whose 
lively  pen  we  owe  an  account  of  some  of  their  meet- 
ings Avith  Henry)  arrived  at  the  English  court.  He 
records  a  remark  made  by  one  of  them,  who,  trembling 
with  fear,  was  walking  with  some  English  lords  in  a 
procession.  "  Sir,"  he  said  to  the  Lord  of  Howth, 
"  there  shall  be  no  butchery  done  upon  none  of  us 
this  time,  praise  be  to  God,  for  the  face  of  the  axe 
is  turned  from  us."  Henry  was  in  no  mood  for 
executions,  but  he  treated  his  late  rebels  to  a  touch 
of  his  ironic  humour  when  he  pro\'ided  as  their  cup- 
bearer "  their  new  king,  Lambarte  Simnel."  "  None 
would  have  taken  the  cup  out  of  his  hands,  but  bade 

>  Book  of  Hotvth,  p.  176.  «  Jbid. 


U93-4]  IRELAND  297 

the  great  Devil  of  Hell  him  take  before  that  ever  he 
saw  him."  "  Bring  me  the  cup  if  the  wine  be  good," 
said  the  Lord  of  Howth,  being  a  merry  gentleman, 
"  and  I  shall  drink  it  off  for  the  wine's  sake  and  mine 
owTi  sake  also,  and  for  thee,  as  thou  art,  so  I  leave 
thee,  a  poor  innocent."  ^  The  other  Irish  lords  had 
not  the  assurance  that  came  from  Howth's  loyalty 
(he  had  warned  the  king  of  Simnel's  "  mad  dance  " 
and  of  Perkin  Warbeck's  schemes),  and  they  felt  the 
sting  of  Henry's  mocking  words,  "  My  masters  of 
Ireland,  you  will  crown  apes  at  length."  - 

Though  Kildare  received  a  full  pardon  (22nd  June 
1493),  he  was  not  restored  to  the  office  of  deputy, 
which  was  given  to  Lord  Gormaston,  one  of  the  lords 
who  had  accompanied  Kildare  to  London,  while 
Ormond  was  given  an  annuity  of  £100  and  the 
constableship  of  Limerick  Castle.^  Kildare  again 
visited  England  in  November  in  the  hope  of  being 
reinstated,  but  in  this  he  was  disappointed.^  Henry 
had  resolved  on  trying  another  experiment.  He 
abandoned  the  tradition  of  choosing  the  deputy  from 
among  the  Irish  lords,  and  resolved  to  appoint  an 
Englishman  of  ability  and  tried  loyalty,  who  would 
not  be  hampered  in  his  treatment  of  Irish  affairs  by 
alliance  with  either  of  the  rival  houses. 

On  12th  September  1494,  Prince  Henry  became 
Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland  in  place  of  the  Duke  of 
Bedford,  and  Sir  Edward  Poynings,  who  had  already 
distinguished  himself  in  Henry's  service,  was  ap- 
pointed Lord-Deputy.^  Two  other  distinguished 
Englishmen,   the   Bishop   of   Bangor   and    Sir   Hugh 

1  Book  of  Howth,  p.  190.  -  Ibid. 

3  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  374. 

*  Dr.  Busch  (Henry  VII.,  p.  341)  gives  reasons  for  doubting  the 
dates  assigned  by  Dr.  Gairdner  and  Bagwell  to  these  visits. 
6  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  374  ;   Rymer,  xii.  558-62. 


298  HENRY    VII  [1494 

Conway,  were  given  the  offices  of  chancellor  and 
treasurer,  and  new  chief  justices  were  appointed. 
On  13th  October  1494,  Poynings  landed  at  Howth 
with  a  force  of  1000  men,'-  and  at  once  marched 
against  the  rebels  who  had  supported  Perkin  War- 
beck  in  Ulster.  Both  Geraldines  and  Butlers  marched 
under  his  banner.  This  strange  unanimity  was  not 
to  last  long.  Before  the  campaign  was  well  begun 
Kildare  fell  under  suspicion.  It  was  alleged  that  he 
and  the  Earl  of  Desmond  were  plotting  with  the 
King  of  Scotland  against  Henry,  and  the  conduct 
of  James  Fitzgerald,  who  seized  the  castle  of  Carlow 
and  defended  it  obstinately  against  Poynings,  gave 
some  colour  to  the  charge.  The  divisions  in  his  own 
ranks  made  Po^Tiings  give  up  his  punitive  expedition. 
After  the  capture  of  Carlow,  he  retired  to  Drogheda 
and  summoned  the  Parliament  which  met  on  1st 
December  1494,  and  passed  the  famous  Poynings' Acts.- 
One  statute  pro\dded  that  no  Parliament  should  be 
summoned  in  Ireland  until  the  cause  of  summons 
and  the  proposed  legislation  had  been  submitted  to 
and  approved  by  the  king  in  council,  and  the  Irish 
Parliament  was  then  to  be  summoned  under  the  great 
seal  of  England.  The  second  statute  p^o^^ded  that 
all  Acts,  "  late  made  witliin  the  said  realm  of 
England,"  should  be  in  force  in  Ireland.^  These 
statutes  were  of  permanent  importance,  and  governed 
the  legislative  relations  of  England  and  Ireland  for 
three  hundred  years.     The  Irish  Parliament  became 

1  For  Poynings'  commission,  see  Patent  Rolls,  12  September,  10 
Hen.  VII.,  m.  18. 

*  Irish  Statutes,  p.  3  ;   Carew  Papers,  pp.  456,  483-4. 

*  Disputes  arose  later  as  to  the  meaning  of  this  Act,  the  decision 
being  that  all  statutes  of  the  English  Parhament  made  prior  to 
1495  should  be  in  force  in  Ireland.     Maitland,  Cotist.  Hist. 


1494]  IRELAND  299 

an  echo  of  the  king  in  council  in  England.  Henry 
achieved  in  Ireland  a  legal  foundation  for  the  system 
of  personal  government,  which  lasted  long  after  his 
work  in  England  had  been  swept  away. 

Less  attention  has  been  given  to  the  other  legis- 
lation of  the  Parliament  of  Drogheda,  which,  how- 
ever, read  in  connection  with  Henry's  establishment 
of  despotism  in  England,  is  curiously  interesting. 
It  struck  at  all  the  forces  of  disruption  and  disorder. 
Kildare  was  attainted  for  his  recent  treason,  arrested, 
and  sent  to  England.^  An  Act  was  passed  providing 
that  judges  and  other  officials  were  to  hold  office 
at  the  king's  pleasure,  not  for  life.  Livery  and 
maintenance  were  forbidden,  family  war-cries  were 
prohibited,  and  licences  to  carry  firearms  had  to 
be  obtained  from  the  deputy.  Some  of  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Statutes  of  Kilkenny,  which  had 
attempted  to  promote  the  spread  of  English  cus- 
toms by  legislation,  were  re-enacted.  Another 
enactment  shows  the  king's  anxiety  to  mark  off 
the  boundaries  of  the  "  English  Pale."  Every  in- 
habitant of  the  marches  of  Dublin,  Meath,  Kildare, 
and  Louth  were  to  make  a  double  ditch  of  six  feet 
above  ground  on  the  side  "  which  meareth  next  unto 
Irishmen."  Further,  an  Act  provided  that  no  man 
who  was  not  born  in  England  could  be  constable  of 
any  of  the  eight  castles  of  the  Pale.  The  necessity 
for  these  provisions  proves  the  weakness  of  the 
English  colony  in  Ireland,  and  illustrates  the  cautious 
character  of  the  king's  methods,  which  succeeded 
where  a  more  ambitious  policy  would  have  failed.- 

Henry  had  also  attempted  to  deal  with  the  financial 

1  Carew  Papers,  pp.  483-4. 

2  At  the  same  time  Henry  was  making  strict  inquiry  as  to  the 
Irishmen  resident  in  England.     City  Chron.,  p.  207. 


300  HENRY    VII  [1495 

problem.  The  royal  revenue  had  greatly  declined 
and  Ireland  did  not  even  pay  for  the  expenses  of 
government.  In  1495,  William  Hatt cliff e,  one  of  the 
clerks  of  account  in  the  royal  household,  who  had 
gained  experience  of  the  king's  methods,  was  sent 
over  to  Ireland,  nominally  as  under-treasurer,  but 
with  very  ^^•ide  powers.  He  practically  overhauled 
the  whole  system  of  expenditure,  investigated  the 
returns  of  sheriffs,  and  audited  the  lord  treasurer's 
accounts.  His  accounts,  which  are  minute  and  curious,^ 
deal  with  varied  items  of  expenditure — the  payment 
of  English  troops  in  Ireland,  subsidies  to  Irish  allies 
and  the  general  expenses  of  government.  Many 
payments  to  spies,  who  were  generally  priests  or 
monks,  are  entered.  One  \'isited  the  marches  of  the 
Pale  to  report  on  the  habits  of  the  people  there: 
another  went  to  Munster  to  spy  upon  Earl  Desmond, 
Perkin  Warbeck,  and  other  rebels,  and  so  on.-  The 
accounts  include  Hattcliffe's  personal  expenses  and 
detailed  items  like  the  price  of  the  key  of  the  Dublin 
customs  house.  In  spite  of  Hattcliffe's  care,  the 
revenue  obtained  from  Ireland,  though  possibly 
adequate  in  time  of  peace,  was  insufficient  in  time 
of  war  or  rebellion. 

In  July  1495,  Perkin  Warbeck  was  again  in  Ireland, 
and  the  country  was  in  arms  in  his  support.  Po}Tiings 
himself  marched  against  him,  but  the  joint  attack  of 
Warbeck  and  Desmond  on  Waterford  was  beaten  off 
by  the  mayor  and  inhabitants  before  the  king's  troops 
arrived.^  Reinforcements  and  supplies  of  mone> 
were  sent  over  to  Ireland,  and  Hattcliffe's  accounts 

1  An  extract  is  printed  in  Gairdner,  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii. 
297-318.  Instructions  for  this  financial  inquiry  are  printed  pp. 
64-67,  and  are  typical  of  the  king's  careful  methods. 

2  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  298,  299.  ^  See  above,  p.  130. 


U96]  IRELAND  801 

showthat  the  expenditure  largely  exceeded  the  revenue. 
Even  when  the  pretender  had  gone,  peace  was  not 
restored.  The  practice  of  employing  Irish  chiefs  to 
fight  against  their  rebellious  fellow-countrymen  made 
a  state  of  war  profitable  to  many.  Sir  James 
Ormond,  that  "  deep  and  far-reaching  man,"  lies 
mider  the  suspicion  of  being  at  the  bottom  of  many 
of  the  later  disturbances.  He  found  his  profit  in 
stirring  up  sedition,  which  he  was  later  employed  to 
put  do%\Ti.^ 

The  Geraldines  also,  incensed  at  Kildare's  deten- 
tion, were  making  raids  on  the  English  district  and 
keeping  the  whole  country  in  an  uproar.  The  king 
found  that  the  earl's  people  gave  him  more  trouble 
when  he  was  in  England  than  ever  before,  and  it 
seemed  politic  to  give  him  another  chance  of  prov- 
ing his  loyalty.  The  personal  equation  may  have 
counted  for  something.  The  Book  of  Howih  gives 
several  stories  of  Kildare's  stay  in  England.  We  are 
told  that  he  was  "  but  half  an  innocent  man  without 
great  knowledge  or  learning,  but  rudely  brought  up 
according  to  the  usages  of  his  country."  His  blunt 
speech  and  unpolished  manner — "  oft  in  his  talk  he 
thou'd  the  king  and  the  rest  of  his  council  " — seem 
to  have  amused  the  king.  He  was  called  upon  to 
answer  various  charges  brought  against  him  by  the 
Bishop  of  Meath,  one  of  them  being  a  riot  when 
the  earl  chased  him  into  a  church  and,  finding 
him  kneeling  bare-headed  in  the  chancel,  "  By 
Saint  Bride,"  said  the  earl,  "  were  it  not  that  I 
know  that  my  prince  would  be  offended  with  me,  I 
could  find  it  in  my  heart  to  lay  my  sword  upon  your 

*  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  Intro,  xl.  As  Dr.  Gairdner  has  pointed 
out,  it  would  seem  that  just  when  Kildare  grew  loytil,  Ormond 
became  seditious. 


302  HENRY    VII  [1495-6 

shaven  crown,"  and  so  took  the  bishop.  To  charges 
of  this  kind  the  earl  protested  he  could  find  no  ready 
answer  ;  "  the  bishop  was  learned  and  so  was  not  he, 
and  those  matters  was  long  agone  out  of  his  mind, 
though  he  had  done  them,  and  so  forgotten."  He 
took  the  opportunity  to  tell  three  "  good  tales  of 
this  \acious  prelate,"  whereupon  the  king  and  his 
lords  "  could  not  hold  their  laughter,  but  the  earl 
never  changed  countenance."  The  king  ad\ised  him 
to  choose  a  wise  counsellor,  and  his  answer  introduces 
the  story,  which,  though  well  known,  must  be  repeated 
as  one  of  the  few  which  give  a  glimpse  of  Henry  in 
his  lighter  moods.  "  '  Shall  I  choose  now,'  said  the 
earl.  '  If  you  so  think  good,'  answered  the  king. 
'  Well,  I  can  see  no  better  man  than  you,  and  by 
Saint  Bride !  I  will  choose  none  other.'  '  Well,' 
said  the  king,  '  by  Saint  Bride  it  was  well  requisite 
for  you  to  choose  so,  for  I  thought  your  tale  could 
not  well  excuse  your  doings  unless  you  had  well 
chosen.'  '  Do  you  think  that  I  am  a  fool  ?  '  said 
the  earl.  '  No,'  said  he,  '  I  am  a  man  in  deed  both 
in  the  field  and  in  the  town.'  The  king  laughed 
and  made  sport;  and  said,  '  A  -^iser  man  might  have 
chosen  worse.'  '  Well,'  said  the  bishop,  '  he  is  as 
you  see,  for  all  Ireland  cannot  rule  yonder  gentleman.' 
'  No,'  said  the  king,  '  then  he  is  meet  to  rule  all 
Ireland,'  and  so  made  the  earl  Deputy  of  Ireland 
during  his  life,  and  so  sent  him  to  the  country  with 
great  gifts."  ^ 

Henry  had  the  tact  and  instinct  for  judging  men 
possessed  by  all  the  Tudors.  Though  tenacious  of  his 
dignity,  he  appreciated  plain  speaking  from  a  bold 
man,  and  found  a  way  of  profiting  bj^  the  daring 
that  made  Kildare  formidable  in  opposition.      Kil- 

»  Book  of  Howth,  pp.  180-1. 


1496-7]  IRELAND  303 

dare's  attainder  was  reversed,  he  was  restored  to  his 
titles  and  dignities  and  his  appointment  as  Lord 
Deputy.^  He  had  evidently  fallen  much  under  the 
king's  influence.  He  had  married  as  his  second  wife 
Elizabeth  St.  John,  Henry's  first  cousin,  and  he 
left  his  son  Gerald  as  a  hostage  at  court.  Hence- 
forward he  does  not  seem  to  have  wavered  in  his 
allegiance. 

Hattcliffe's  accounts  prove  that  the  work  of  reducing 
Ireland  to  order  was  going  on.  A  subsidy  was  col- 
lected at  double  the  old  rates,  but  there  were  still 
heavy  expenses  in  maintaining  the  English  troops 
and  subsidiary  Irish  levies. - 

The  best  evidence  of  the  success  of  Henry's  Irish 
policy  is  the  lack  of  support  obtained  by  Perkin 
Warbeck  when  he  reappeared  before  the  city  of  Cork 
on  20th  July  1497.  In  this  most  critical  moment  of 
a  difficult  reign,  great  issues  hung  on  the  fate  of  the 
adventurer's  last  bid  for  fortune.  The  hope  of  Irish 
support  was  a  vital  point  in  his  plans.  That  support, 
however,  he  failed  to  get.  His  former  friends  had 
been  won  over  by  Henry,  and  even  Desmond  failed 
him.  The  city  of  Waterford  once  more  proved  its 
loyalty,  and  fitted  out  four  ships  to  give  chase  to 
Perkin.  It  was  obvious  that  Ireland  was  no  longer 
a  happy  hunting  ground  for  traitors  and  pretenders. 
The  city  of  Waterford  received  a  letter  of  thanks 
from  the  king,  a  cap  of  maintenance,  and  the  proud 
title  of  Urbs  intacta.^ 

For  the  rest  of  the  reign;  affairs  in  Ireland  did  not 
call  for  Henrj^'s  interference.     There  were  the  usual 

1  6th  August  1496  ;  Rot.  Pari.,  vi.  481-2  ;  Stat.,  ii.  612-3  ;  Ex- 
cerpta  Hist.,  109. 

»  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  pp.  31G-7. 

'  Smith,  Waterford,  printing  the  king's  letter.  See  above,  pp. 
155-6. 


304  HENRY     VII  [1497-1504 

tribal  wars,  but  Kildare  managed  his  country  ^^ithout 
appealing  to  the  king.  Henry  reaped  the  reward 
of  ha\'ing  put  in  authority  a  man  who  did  not  shirk 
responsibility.  There  is  evidence  that  the  king's 
influence  and  authority  over  the  deputy  remained 
imtouched,  and  Kildare  carried  out  his  policy  of 
extending  Anglo-Irish  influences  and  of  depressing 
the  natives.  His  work  was  made  easier  by  the  death 
of  his  old  rival,  Sir  James  Ormond,  in  July  1497  ;  this 
brought  the  end  of  the  feud. 

The  king's  policy  of  Anglicising  Ireland  was  pushed 
on  rapidly.  Cork  was  N-isited  and  garrisoned  by  Kil- 
dare, and  the  citizens  were  forced  to  take  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  Henry.  A  Parliament  held  by  Kildare 
in  1498,  after  punishing  the  Irish  who  had  supported 
Perkin  Warbeck,  passed  Acts  discouraging  the  use 
of  Irish  weapons.  Dwellers  within  the  Pale  were 
to  wear  English  dress  and  use  English  weapons,  the 
native  darts  and  spears  being  forbidden.^ 

In  1503  Kildare  again  \isited  England  at  Henry's 
order.  The  king  was  e\'idently  convinced  that  his 
authority  over  Kildare  was  too  well  established  to 
require  a  hostage  for  his  good  faith,  and  he  allowed 
the  earl's  eldest  son  Gerald,  with  his  English  wife, 
to  return  with  him  to  Ireland.  The  wearisome  story 
of  the  wars  waged  by  Kjldare  in  Ulster  and  Con- 
naught  against  a  rebellious  grandson  can  fortunately 
be  omitted.  The  only  point  of  importance  is  the 
increasing  use  of  field  artillery,  which  gave  a  great 
advantage  to  the  troops  of  the  deputy  and  made 
it  easier  to  put  down  rebellion.  In  these  wars 
Kildare's  side  was  the  English  side,  and  his  \dctories 
meant  the  further  spread  of  English  influence.  In 
the    battle   of   Knoctoe,    1504,   the   deputy  opposed 

1  Bagwell,  op.  cit.,  i.  118  ;   Gilbert,  Irish  MSS.,  vol.  iii. 


1604-9]  THE    RENAISSANCE  305 

to  a  wild  Irish  horde  a  small  but  comparatively 
disciplined  force  in  which  the  representatives  of 
peaceful  civilisation — churchmen  and  lawyers — were 
too  numerous  for  the  tastes  of  many  of  his  sup- 
porters.^ Kildare  gained  a  signal  victory — "  The 
Irish  durst  not  fight  a  battle  never  after  with  the 
English  Pale,"  -  we  are  told — and  his  good  ser\dce 
was  rewarded  by  Henry.  Kildare  became  a  Knight  of 
the  Garter  and  his  son  Lord  Treasurer  of  Ireland. 
A  few  years  later,  in  1508,  he  held  a  Parliament  which 
granted  a  subsidy,^  and  at  Henry's  death  his  deputy's 
authority  was  unchallenged  in  the  Anglo-Irish  dis- 
trict, which  he  is  credited  with  ha\ing  greatly  en- 
larged. According  to  the  Irish  chronicler,  "  Peace, 
golden  peace,  descended  upon  the  country."  Even 
Ireland,  "the  standing  failure  of  English  sovereigns, 
had  been  handled  by  Henry  not  wholly  without 
success."  *  For  the  first  time  submission  paid  better 
than  rebellion.     The  king  had  left  his  mark  on  Ireland. 

There  is  an  obvious  danger  of  exaggerating  the 
influence  of  the  Renaissance  on  contemporary  England, 
of  throwing  back  to  its  first  beginnings  our  knowledge 
of  its  effect  in  its  later  stages.  In  the  beginning  it 
was  destructive,  not  constructive.  It  put  men  out 
of  conceit  with  their  traditional  studies,  habits,  and 
ideals,  without  at  first  giving  them  anything  in  their 
place.  Intellectual  chaos  was  added  to  social  up- 
heaval without  any  one  being  consciously  the  gainer. 
There  was  an  absolute  revolt  against  medieval 
mysticism.     The  Papacy  and  Empire  lost  the  support 

>  Book  of  Houih,  pp.   181-5.     Kildare's  speech  before  the  battle 
reminded  his  men  that  they  fought  for  the  honour  of  their  prince. 
*  Ibid. 

3  Irish  Stat.,  24  Hen.  VII.;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  App.  380. 
«  Social  Eng.  (ed.  Traill),  ii.  p.  613. 

U 


306  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

of  uncritical  reverence  for  their  age-long  claims  to 
universal  dominion.  Viewed  in  the  light  of  religious 
speculation,  ecclesiastical  sloth  appeared  more  blatant, 
but  found  no  cure.  The  effect  on  the  choicer  spirits 
of  the  age  was  disturbing,  the  effect  on  the  mass  of 
the  people  was  practically  nil.  It  was  not  until  long 
after  the  death  of  Henry  VII.,  that  the  results  of 
the  Renaissance  on  English  society  could  be  seen. 
Yet  the  first  movements  of  the  new  spirit  are  none 
the  less  interesting  for  being  obscure. 

From  Italy,  the  Mecca  of  scholasticism,  came  the 
impulse  for  the  emancipation  of  learning.  Duke 
Humphrey  of  Gloucester,  the  princely  patron  of 
Italian  scholars,  the  benefactor  of  university  libraries, 
had  been  the  pioneer  of  the  new  learning  in  England. 
He  was  followed  by  a  band  of  churchmen  and  scholars 
who  went  abroad  to  study  the  revived  classical 
learning.  Next  came  William  Selling,  and  his 
disciples  Linacre,  Grocyn,  Lily,  and  Latimer,  who 
laid  the  foundations  of  the  new  learning  in  England. 
The  beginning  of  the  new  reign  and  the  first  harvest 
of  the  Renaissance  in  England  were  almost  simul- 
taneous. Linacre  and  Grocyn  returned  to  England 
about  1490,  and  established  the  study  of  Greek  at 
Oxford.  A  revival  of  learning  and  of  activity  at 
both  the  universities  followed.  New  foundations 
became  fashionable.  The  king's  mother  founded  two 
colleges  at  Cambridge — St.  John's  and  Christ's.  The 
Bishop  of  Ely  founded  Jesus  College ;  the  king 
himself  gave  large  sums  for  the  completion  of  King's 
College,  founded  by  his  pious  uncle,  and  endowed 
scholarships  in  the  university.  At  Oxford,  Brazenose 
was  founded  by  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  and  Corpus 
Christi  by  the  Bishop  of  Winchester.  Grocyn  was 
followed  in  his  humanist  study  of  the  Scriptures  by 


1485-1509]  THE    RENAISSANCE  307 

Colet,  who  is  described  by  Vergil  as  distinguished  by 
the  \Trtue  of  his  soul  and  mind  and  by  the  purity 
of  his  life  and  manners.  He  was  honoured,  he  says, 
amonjr  the  English  almost  like  a  second  St.  Paul  the 
Apostle.^  Thus  it  is  in  this  reign  that  theological 
criticism  made  the  first  breach  in  the  wall  of  medieval 
theolog}'  through  which  poured  all  the  changes  of  the 
Reformation. 

The  critical  spirit  found  a  sphere  of  destructive 
action  in  the  practice  as  well  as  in  the  theory  of  the 
Church.  It  was  an  age  of  great  secularisation.  From 
the  bishops,  ]Morton,  Fox,  and  Warham,  who  were 
the  king's  ministers,  down  to  the  humblest  monks 
in  the  abbey  of  St.  Albans,  there  is  evidence  that  the 
churchmen  of  the  late  fifteenth  century  were  escaping 
from  the  restrictions  of  the  contemplative  life.  There 
had  been  no  religious  movement  in  England  since  the 
days  of  Wycliff.  Learning  was  dead  in  the  Church ; 
the  average  churchman  who  had  intellectual  gifts 
employed  them  in  the  intricacies  of  a  barren  scholasti- 
cism, and  the  rank  and  file  found  an  outlet  for  their 
energies  in  the  ordinary  pursuits  of  laymen.  The 
ambitious  man  heaped  up  wealth :  bishoprics  were 
sold,  pluralities  were  common,  and  he  found  it  easy 
to  buy  his  steps  upwards.  IMen  whose  ambition 
took  another  form  joined  in  the  scramble  for  land 
which  is  a  feature  of  the  early  Tudor  period.  Parsons 
quarrelled  with  their  parishioners,  and  lawsuits  be- 
tween the  great  abbots  and  their  lay  neighbours 
were  frequent.  Churchmen  won  an  unen\iable 
notoriety  by  their  high-handed  methods  of  dealing 
with  commons  and  wastes,  enclosing  lands  for  their 
parks.     Like    his    neighbour   the    squire,    the    abbot 

1  Pol.  Verg.,  op.  cit.,  618.  He  mentions  Colet's  foundation  of 
St.  Paul's  School  and  the  appointment  of  William  Lily  as  master. 


308  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

occupied  himself  hunting  and  hawking,  and  rode 
abroad  attended  by  troops  of  servants  wearing  his 
Hvery.^  The  Hfe  of  the  average  churchman  was  not 
worse,  but  it  was  not  conspicuously  better,  than  that 
of  the  la^Tnen  he  mixed  with.  ^lany  of  the  lower  ranks 
of  the  clergy  wasted  their  time  and  brought  their  calling 
into  disrepute.  The  sermons  preached  by  the  friars  at 
St.  Paul's  Cross  attacked  the  clerg}^  for  wearing  lay 
dress,  carr^-ing  swords  and  daggers,  and  frequenting 
taverns,  and  drunkenness  and  brawling  were  common. 
The  Convocation  of  Canterbury  in  1486  had  to  deal 
with  the  matter  openly  -  The  language  of  the  Act  of 
1485,  which  gave  the  bishops  power  to  commit  clerks 
to  prison  for  immorality,  suggests  the  prevalence  of 
grosser  e\-ils.^ 

There  was  a  constant  complaint  that  church  build- 
ings were  allowed  to  fall  into  decay,  that  hospitality 
was  neglected,  that  scholarship  was  dead,  and  that, 
owing  to  the  decay  of  the  universities,  there  were 
no  longer  any  scholars  to  teach  di%'inity  or  preach 
in  cathedrals  and  monasteries.  Venality  spread  like 
a  canker  through  the  Church.  The  popes,  who  sold 
bulls,  benefices,  indulgences,  licences  for  non-residence 
— a  crying  scandal —  and  traded  away  their  spiritual 
power  for  pence,  found  apt  imitators  on  a  smaller 
scale.  Henry  VII.  rewarded  his  faithful  ministers 
^^^th  bishoprics.  He  even  thought  of  a  bishopric  for 
the  rascally  Spanish  ambassador — and  his  nobles 
found  Church  preferment  for  their  servants.  Boys 
of  ten  or  twelve  who  had  obtained  a  master's  degree 
after  a  year's  study  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge  became 
venerable  archdeacons  before  they  knew  how  to  sing 
matins.     ''  Benefices,"  writes  Dudley  in  his  Tree  of  the 

*  Star  Chamber  Cases,  ed.  Leadam  (Selden  Soc.). 

*  WilkinB,  Concilia,  iii.  618,  619,  620.  »  Stat.,  ii.  500-1. 


1485-1509]  THE    RENAISSANCE  309 

Commonwealth,  "are  given  not  to  the  virtuous  or  the 
learned,  but  to  such  as  can  be  good  and  profitable 
stewards  of  houses  and  clerks  of  your  kitchens  .  .  . 
and  to  such  as  can  surely  and  wisely  be  receivers  of 
your  rents  and  revenues,  and  rather  than  fail  will 
boldly  distrain  a  poor  man's  cattle  and  drive  them 
to  pound  till  they  starve  from  hunger." 

But  the  corruption  of  the  Church  attracted  the 
notice  of  these  Renaissance  scholars.  Colet  and 
Erasmus  poured  out  a  flood  of  destructive  criticism. 
The  follies  and  self-seeking  of  the  clergy  came  under 
the  lash  of  biting  irony  that  had  not  spared  the 
occupants  of  St.  Peter's  chair.  Dean  Colet's  sermons 
at  St.  Paul's  were  an  outspoken  attack  against 
the  corrupt  lives  of  the  clergy,  and  upon  certain 
doctrines  of  the  Church,  which  drew  down  upon 
him  the  censure  of  the  Bishop  of  London.  Colet 
was,  however,  saved  from  prosecution  as  a  heretic 
by  a  powerful  protector — Archbishop  Warham.  It 
was  ob\ious  that  the  new  spirit  was  in  the  ascen- 
dant at  Henry's  court,  and  its  ultimate  triumph  was 
foreshadowed. 

The  new  reforming  spirit  found  another  outlet  in 
the  visitation  of  the  monasteries.  Archbishop  Morton 
had  been  one  of  the  first  Oxford  scholars  affected 
by  Italian  influences,  and  being  impressed  by  the 
need  for  monastic  reform,  obtained  from  Pope  Inno- 
cent a  bull  for  a  visitation.  A  terrible  indictment 
was  brought  against  the  Abbey  of  St.  Albans.  Morton 
charged  the  abbot  with  having  "  laid  aside  the  pleasant 
yoke  of  contemplation  and  all  regular  observances, 
hospitality,  alms,  and  other  offices  of  piety.  .  .  The 
ancient  rule  of  your  order  is  deserted,"  he  wrote,  "  not 
a  few  of  your  fellow  monks  giving  themselves  over  to  a 
reprobate  life.  .  .  ."     He  accused  the  abbot  of  having 


310  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

appointed  as  prioress  of  the  neighbouring  and  depend- 
ent nunnery  a  woman  who  had  already  been  married, 
and  who  Hved  in  adultery  with  the  monks.  All  the 
worst  charges  brought  by  anti-Catholics  against  the 
monastic  system  were  made  in  the  case  of  this  monas- 
tery. The  abbot  was  said  to  have  sold  the  common 
property  of  the  abbey,  cut  down  and  sold  the  woods, 
taken  away  the  jewels,  and  so  on ;  and  the  Arch- 
bishop's letter  stated  that  "  the  brethren  of  the  abbey 
live  with  harlots  and  mistresses  publicly  and  continu- 
ously within  the  precincts  of  the  monastery."  ^  Similar 
scandals  were  revealed  by  the  visitation  of  the  diocese 
of  Norwich.  Incidental  notices  prove  that  similar 
disorders  were  rife  up  and  down  the  country.  The 
famous  priory  of  Walsingham,  which  was  much 
favoured  by  Henry  VII.,  shared  in  the  general  de- 
moralisation. The  Prior  of  Bath  swaggered  about 
followed  by  eighteen  men  wearing  his  livery,  while 
his  neglected  church  fell  into  ruin  and  decay.  The 
Abbot  of  jNIalmesbury  brutally  ill-treated  his  depend- 
ents, the  Prior  of  Sheen  was  foully  murdered  by 
one  of  his  monks.  Though  serious  vice  was  less 
common  than  secularisation,  it  was  evident  that  the 
vital  spirit  of  monasticism  had  fied.^  The  rapidity 
with  which  the  Reformation  took  root  in  England 
and  the  violence  of  the  reaction  against  the  faith 
of  centuries  are  explained. 

As  the  Church  let  its  high  standard  slip,  its  influence 
declined.     It  had  lost  its   spiritual   and  intellectual 

'  Wilkins,  Concilia,  iii.  632-4.  There  has  been  much  discussion 
about  the  case  of  St.  Albans.  See  Eng.  Hist.  Rev.,  xxii.  365-6, 
xxiv.  91-6,  319-21. 

*  Visitation  of  Norwich,  Visitation  of  SouihweU  (Camden  Soc,  1888, 
1890) ;  Bath  Chartid.  (Somers  Sec.  Roc),  Intro.  Ix\-ii.,  Ixviii.;  Star 
Chamber  Cases  (Selden  Soc),  Intro,  xxii.;  City  Chron.,  259. 


1485-1509]  THE    RENAISSANCE  311 

leadership,  and  England  was  ready  for  the  seed  sown 
by  Renaissance  scholars,  the  growth  from  which 
forced  its  way  through  the  thickets  of  medieval 
scholasticism,  and  challenged  the  system  of  ecclesi- 
astical dominion  that  had  made  learning  the  monopoly 
of  one  class. 

But  as  usual  in  this  reign  of  contrasts,  old  traditions 
flourished  side  by  side  with  the  new  thought.  While 
there  might  be  toleration  for  new  forms  of  inquiry, 
there  was  none  for  old  forms  of  heresy.  The 
Church  that  had  abandoned  her  great  ideals  still 
claimed  empire  over  the  intellect.  Heretics  were 
ferreted  out  and  set  in  the  pillory,  those  who  refused 
to  recant  being  burnt  at  the  stake.  In  1494,  a  woman 
over  eighty  years  of  age  was  burnt  at  Smithfield  for 
nine  articles  of  heresy.  In  one  case  it  appears  that 
a  priest  convicted  of  heresy  was  converted  by  the 
exhortations  of  the  king  himself,  "  whereof  his  grace 
had  great  honour,"  but  the  stake  still  claimed  its 
victim.^  In  many  other  places,  Canterbury,  Norwich, 
and  Salisbury,  and  at  Amersham  in  Buckingham, 
Lollardry  seems  to  have  flourished.  Thus  fires  were 
burning  at  Smithfield,  a  few  hundred  yards  from 
the  spot  where  Dean  Colet's  eloquence  was  stirring 
up  a  much  more  formidable  revolt  against  Church 
doctrines. 

Thus  the  influence  of  the  Renaissance  had  spread 
from  Oxford  to  the  Church.  The  new  monarchy  was 
to  prove  a  powerful  agent  in  spreading  the  new  ideas 
among  the  nobles  and  gentry,  and  ultimately  among 
the  middle  classes.  The  Italian  influences  at  court 
were  considerable.     The  king  employed  many  Italians 

»  City  Chron.,  200,  208,  222,  226.  A  few  heretics  were  pardoned 
on  condition  that,  for  the  rest  of  their  lives,  they  wore  gowns  ena- 
broidered  with  a  cross  and  a  faggot  in  red. 


312  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

in  his  service.  Giovanni  Gigli,  sent  to  England  as 
a  papal  collector,  became  Henry's  diplomatic  agent 
at  Rome,  and  was  rewarded  with  the  bishopric  of 
Worcester.  He  it  was  who  celebrated  the  king's 
marriage  with  Elizabeth  of  York  in  an  elaborate 
Latin  poem.  Silvestro  Gigli,  his  nephew,  was  Henry's 
Master  of  the  Ceremonies,  and  later  was  resident 
ambassador  at  Rome,  He  was  a  man  of  letters, 
and  corresponded  with  Erasmus.  Peter  Carmeliano, 
besides  being  Latin  secretary  and  one  of  the  king's 
chaplains,  seems  to  have  been  a  court  poet  as  well. 
He  was  followed  as  Latin  secretary  by  Ammonio 
and  Peter  Vannes,  both  of  whom  were  Italians. 
Adrian  de  Castello,  the  collector  of  Peter's  Fence 
in  England,  also  passed  into  Henry's  service,  be- 
came his  agent  at  Rome,  and  later  ambassador  to 
Alexander  the  Sixth.  Of  all  the  Italians  employed 
by  Henry  VII.,  the  most  famous  was  the  historian 
Polydor  Vergil,  who  came  to  England  in  1501  as 
sub-collector  of  Peter's  Pence.  He  was  taken  into 
the  king's  favour,  became  Archdeacon  of  Wells,  and 
resided  at  court.  His  famous  Jng/iccc  Huforice  Libr'/, 
a  book  which  marks  a  very  great  advance  in  English 
historical  work,  being  carried  out  on  a  large  scale  and 
in  a  critical  spirit,  was  begun  in  Henry's  lifetime 
and  with  his  encouragement. 

It  was  design,  not  chance,  which  led  Henry  to 
employ  all  these  Italians.  He  found  they  understood 
and  sympathised  with  his  aims,  as  his  backward 
subjects  could  not  do,  and  they  had  had  a  diplomatic 
training  of  a  kind  unknown  in  England.  Meanwhile 
the  king  reproduced — on  a  very  modest  scale,  it  is 
true — the  patronage  of  literature  characteristic  of  the 
Italian  princes.  Those  few  of  his  own  subjects  who 
reached   any   eminence    in    literature   enjoyed    court 


1485-1509]  THE    RENAISSA^XE  313 

favour.  The  foremost  of  these  was  John  Skelton, 
who  wrote  various  poems  on  the  royal  children  and 
became  the  tutor  of  Prince  Henry,  for  whom  he 
wrote  the  Speculum  Pr'mcipis,  a  treatise  which  is 
now  lost.  His  courtly  poems  gave  little  promise  of 
the  satiric  power  which  he  displayed  later,  in  the 
reign  of  his  pupil.  Henry  was  ready  to  encourage 
any  talent  that  displayed  itself.  Bernard  Andre 
was  retained  to  sing  the  king's  praises  in  pompous 
Latin,  but  his  turgid  rhetoric  cannot  be  taken 
very  seriously  as  literature.  Distinguished  men  like 
Erasmus  were  welcomed  at  court.  ^  The  king  spent 
considerable  sums  on  buying  books.  He  added  a 
fair  number  of  books  to  the  royal  hbrary,  paying  as 
much  as  £25  to  one  Frenchman,  and  gave  rewards  to 
encourage  the  new  art  of  printing. 

The  education  of  the  royal  children  represented  the 
triumphs  of  Renaissance  ideals  of  culture  at  Henry's 
court.  Prince  HenrA' — the  young  Octa\ius  of  England 
as  he  was  called — was  unusually  accomplished.  In 
his  boyhood  he  was  a  ty^e  of  the  brilliant  figures 
of  the  Renaissance  period.  He  had  great  personal 
beauty,  was  extremely  musical,  a  graceful  dancer, 
a  fine  sportsman,  no  mean  Latinist,  and  a  very  fair 
poet,  without  a  touch  of  the  intellectual  torpor  and 
lack  of  physical  grace  supposedly  characteristic  of 
the  barbarous  English. 

The  magnificence  of  the  first  of  the  Tudors  was 
displayed  after  Italian  fashions.  The  king  bought 
Italian  furniture,  sent  to  Italy  for  cloth  of  gold  and 
damask.  Gorgeous  church  vestments  were  made  and 
embroidered  for  him  in  Florence.  Even  the  royal 
tomb  was  entrusted  to  an  Italian,  Pietro  Torregiano, 

^  Elrasmus,  however,  was  disappointed  at  not  receiving  more 
tangible  proofs  of  royal  favour. 


314  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

and  its  appearance  in  a  chapel  which  is  a  masterpiece 
of  EngHsh  perpendicular  work,  is  tj^ical  of  the  con- 
flict between  medieval  and  Renaissance  influences. 

The  same  influences  also  reached  England  through 
the  king's  diplomatic  relations  %\dth  Italian  princes. 
Though  there  had  been  official  communications  on 
commercial  matters  between  England  and  the  State 
of  Venice  for  a  long  time,  the  first  formal  embassy 
from  Venice  was  sent  to  London  in  1497.  Henry 
was  on  very  friendly  terms  with  the  Dukes  of  Milan, 
Feirara,  and  Urbino.  The  last  was  honoured  with 
the  Order  of  the  Garter.  He  occasionally  exchanged 
presents  with  the  King  of  England,  Henry  receiving 
on  one  occasion  a  painting  by  Raphael,  which  must 
have  been  one  of  the  first  examples  of  the  Italian 
masters  ever  seen  in  England,  where  painting,  except 
in  the  form  of  illuminations,  was  almost  unknown. 

Henry  VII.  was  the  first  English  sovereign  since 
Henry  III.  who  cared  in  the  slightest  degree  for  art. 
With  his  reign  the  long  barren  period  ended,  and  a 
new  era  began,  i  He  is  believed  to  have  invited 
the  Flemish  artist  Jan  Grossaert  or  Mabuse  to 
England,  though  the  portrait  often  ascribed  to  him, 
which  is  said  to  be  that  of  Henry's  three  children, 
is  probably  not  by  his  hand.  He  certainly  obtained 
the  king's  patronage,  and  several  pictures  of  thr^ 
Flemish  school,  notably  the  portraits  of  Lady  Margaret 
and  the  "Marriage  of  Henry  VII.  ^\ith  Elizabeth  of 
York,"  were  painted  by  Flemish  artists  in  London 
during  Hemy's  reign. 

But  it  is  from  his  interest  in  building  and  architec- 
ture that  Henry's  ambition  to  be  a  patron  of  art  is 
best  realised.  A  beautiful  palace  arose  at  Richmond 
out  of  the  ashes  of  the  royal  residence  (itself  built  by 

*  Social  England,  ii.  680-3. 


1485-1509]  THE    RENAISSANCE  315 

Henry)  at  Sheen.  New  York  was  done  at  St.  George's 
Chapel,  Windsor,  and  Baynard's  Castle  was  rebuilt. 
The  noblest  monument  of  all,  the  Chapel  of  Henry 
VII.  at  Westminster,  which  still  holds  the  dust  of 
the  Tudor  despots,  is  a  glorious  example  of  Gothic 
architecture,  and  its  stately  splendour  is  beyond  all 
verbal  tribute. 

The  king's  example  was  followed  by  his  subjects ; 
from  his  ministers  Bray  and  INIorton  down  to  the 
citizens  of  provincial  towns  like  Bristol,  every  one  of 
wealth  and  importance  built  largely  and  splendidly.^ 

Thus  the  light  hitherto  held  by  a  small  band  of 
University  men  began  to  spread  through  England, 
and  the  motive  power  of  this  diffusion  was  the  new 
monarchy.  Henry  VII.  focussed  the  forces  that 
during  his  reign  transformed  England  from  medie- 
valism to  modernism.  The  despotism  he  established 
made  the  Crown  the  centre  of  society.  His  court 
became  the  spring  of  national  activity,  and  gave 
a  definite  lead  to  society.  The  great  princes  of 
feudalism  had  been  replaced  by  smaller  men,  above 
whom  the  king  reigned  in  lonely  splendour.  The 
descendant  of  the  feudal  baron  left  his  isolated  castle 
to  enter  the  king's  service.  The  social  influences 
radiating  from  the  king's  court  reached  the  provinces, 
and  the  households  of  the  nobles  employed  about  the 
king  echoed  the  ideas  of  the  court. 

"  From  the  prince,"  wrote  Sir  Thomas  More,  "  as 
from  a  perpetual  well-spring  cometh  among  the 
people  the  flood  of  all  that  is  good  or  evil."  ^ 
Henry  VII.  was  the  source  of  power,  the  creator  of 
employment,  the  dispenser  of  office.  The  court  led 
as  a  stepping  stone  to  the  great  careers  of  arms, 

1  City  Chron.,  pp.  226,  234  ;  Social  England,  ii.  637-8,  676-8. 
*  More,  Utopia  (ed.  Lumby),  25. 


316  HENRY     VII  [1485-1509 

diplomacy,  and  administrative  employment ;  and  thus 
Italian  influences  at  court  found  an  ever  widening 
sphere  of  influence.  Even  those  who  had  no  special 
leanings  to  scholarship,  found  the  very  fabric  of 
their  lives,  their  habits,  customs,  tastes  and  occupa- 
tions, the  houses  they  lived  in,  and  the  clothes  they 
wore,  being  imperceptibly  but  permanently  changed  by 
the  influence  of  new  ideas  imported  from  the  Continent. 

In  addition  to  the  direct  influence  and  imitation  of 
the  court,  another  force  led  to  the  spread  of  a  liberal 
education.  Posts  in  the  king's  ser\'ice  were  thrown 
open  to  men  of  the  class  hitherto  shut  out  by  birth 
from  any  hope  of  official  employment.  Diplomatic 
posts  hitherto  monopolised  by  foreigners  were  given 
by  Henry  to  his  subjects,  and  foreign  diplomacy 
became  more  important  during  Henry's  reign  than 
it  had  ever  been  before.  Permanent  embassies 
brought  England  more  closely  in  touch  with  the 
Continent,  and  afforded  opportunity  of  distinction 
to  the  ambitious.  Stile,  Savage,  Wingfield,  and 
above  all  Wolsey,  were  the  front  rank  in  the  army 
of  English  diplomatists  who  have  represented  their 
country  in  the  courts  of  Europe  ever  since,  acting  as  a 
centre  of  cosmopolitan  influences  on  their  return.^ 

It  is  no  inconsiderable  change  that  the  statecraft  of 
the  new  monarchy  brought  about.  jVIilitary  skill  was 
no  longer  the  only  \'ital  part  of  a  gentleman's  training ; 
if  he  was  to  succeed,  he  must  be  educated  as  well. 
The    standard    had    been    exceptionaUy    low.     The 

*  Erasmus  found  England  much  less  insular  than  might  have 
been  expected  ;  foreign  influences  were  strong,  and  there  was  a  thirst 
for  knowledge  like  that  on  the  Continent.  Froude  suggests  that  the 
Englishman  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  was  more  in  touch  with  the 
feeling  of  the  Continent  than  he  is  at  the  present  day.  ilen  of 
birth  spoke  one  universal  language,  and  the  barrier  of  rehgious 
differences  had  not  arisen. 


U85-1509]      VOYAGES    OF    DISCOVERY  317 

average  nobleman  read  little,  \NTote  indifferently,  and 
spelt  vilely  ;  ^  even  a  merchant  carrying  on  a  con- 
siderable business  could  only  just  make  himself 
intelligible ;  ^  the  mass  of  the  country  gentry  could 
neither  read  nor  write.  By  throwing  open  a  career 
to  men  of  talent,  Henry  set  on  foot  a  movement, 
which  bv  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  had  filled  England 
with  the  "  Italianate  Englishman,"  and  had  given 
even  the  middle  classes  some  interest  in  literature. 

Another  great  influence  for  popularising  learning 
had  been  introduced  eight  years  before  the  accession 
of  Henry  VII.  Caxton  had  set  up  his  printing-press 
in  Westminster,  and  by  the  date  of  his  death  (1491), 
about  95  books  had  been  printed.  Caxton  was 
followed  by  Wynk\Ti  de  Worde,  and  between  1477 
and  1500  about  400  books  were  printed  in  England.^ 
The  introduction  of  printing,  though  it  had  little 
influence  at  the  time,  is  important  of  course  as 
perhaps  one  of  the  strongest  forces  that  has  ever 
moulded  the  mind  of  the  nation. 

The  reign  of  Henry  VII.  saw  the  beginning  of 
mighty  changes.  The  critical  spirit  was  thrusting 
itself  into  all  the  dark  places  of  medieval  thought, 
questioning  the  foundations  of  accepted  beliefs. 
Under  this  new  influence  medieval  priestcraft  and  king- 
craft gave  way  to  a  new  theology  and  a  new  monarchy. 
Feudalism  and  manorialism  were  replaced  by  the 
new  divisions  of  capital  and  labour,  and  from  the  decay 
of  communism  sprang  the  triumph  of  indi\'idualism. 

The  voyages  of  discovery  that  took  place  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  VII.  are  interesting  rather  as  the 
first    chapter   in    the    story    of   maritime    adventure 

^  The  Earl  of  Suffolk's  letters  are  an  example  of  this. 
*  Cely  Papers.  '  Social  England,  ii.  726,  732. 


318  HENRY   VII  [1493 

which  carried  the  English  trade  and  flag  all  over  the 
world  than  for  their  intrinsic  importance.  Great 
daring  and  enterprise  met  with  little  practical  result. 
It  has  often  been  said  that  Henry  discouraged  the 
adventurers,  and,  by  his  short-sighted  greed,  let  slip  a 
golden  opportunity.  But  this  seems  to  be  a  deduction 
from  the  theory  of  the  conduct  that  could  be  expected 
from  a  man  of  avaricious  temper  rather  than  to  be 
founded  on  fact.  Henry  certainly  missed  his  first 
chance.  He  lacked  imagination,  and,  sated  with 
adventures  in  his  youth,  was  disinclined  to  embark 
in  speculation  ;  but  the  Spanish  success  was  a  turning- 
point,  and  all  the  evidence  goes  to  prove  that  he 
helped  the  later  attempts  generously  as  long  as  they 
had  any  reasonable  prospect  of  success.  Their  failure 
was  due,  not  to  the  king's  apathy,  but  to  the  chimera 
of  the  North-west  Passage. 

When  Bartholomew  Columbus  appeared  at  the 
English  court  to  try  and  enlist  the  king's  sjTnpathy  for 
his  brother's  schemes,  Henry  had  only  been  a  few  years 
on  the  throne,  and  all  his  resources  were  taxed  by 
his  difficult  position.  The  idea  of  trying  to  find  a 
new  trade  route  to  the  East  was  sufficiently  attractive 
for  the  king  to  promise  help  in  an  indefinite  way. 
But  Henry's  pre-occupations  spelt  delay,  and  in  the 
meantime  Christopher  Columbus  convinced  Ferdinand, 
made  his  great  voyage,  and  discovered  the  New  World 
for  the  King  of  Spain.  Henry  learnt  the  result  of 
Columbus's  voyage  in  1493,  and  from  that  moment 
his  attitude  changed  ;    he  had  found  out  that  the 

^  The  question  as  to  how  far  Henry  had  committed  himself  to 
Bartholomew  Columbus  is  a  difficult  one.  It  is  discussed  by  Dr. 
Busch  (p.  360),  who  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the  king  probably 
promised  help.  The  main  point,  however,  that  Henry's  promise 
came  too  late,  is  indisputable. 


1495-6]        VOYAGES    OF    DISCOVERY  319 

visionary  scheme  had  resulted  in  profit  to  his  rival, 
the  King  of  Spain. 

Meanwliile  Henry's  own  subjects  had  taken  up  the 
idea  of  finding  a  new  route  to  the  East.  Trade  with 
India  had  been  cut  off  by  the  conquests  of  the  Turks, 
and  Englishmen  were  fired  with  the  hope  of  dis- 
covering a  North-west  Passage,  which  would  bring 
them  again  into  touch  with  the  riches  of  the  East. 
It  was  this  will-of-the-wisp  wliich  led  the  English 
adventurers  to  waste  their  strength  in  vain  on  the 
inhospitable  shores  of  North-East  America. 

Brazil,  the  fabled  isle  of  gold  and  spices,  was  another 
goal  of  their  hopes.  Bristol  was  the  centre  of  the 
maritime  spirit.  If  we  reject  as  doubtful  the  story 
that  Christopher  Columbus  sailed  from  Bristol  to  the 
North-west  in  1477,  we  are  on  firm  ground  with  the 
voyage  of  Thomas  Lloyd  from  the  same  city  in  1480, 
in  search  of  Brazil.  Ayala,  writing  in  1498,  said,  "  The 
people  of  Bristol  have  for  the  last  six  or  seven  years 
sent  out  ever}^  year,  two,  three,  or  four  light  ships 
in  search  of  the  island  of  Brazil  and  the  seven  cities."  ^ 
The  moving  spirit  in  these  adventures  was  John 
Cabot,  a  Genoese,  who  was  therefore  a  man  of  some 
experience  when  he  applied  to  Henry  for  help  in  1495.2 
Henry  was  by  this  time  aware  of  the  importance  of 
the  Spanish  discovery,^  and  gave  Cabot  a  much  more 
encouraging  reception  than  Columbus.  On  March  5, 
1496,  the  king  issued  letters  patent  to  his  well-beloved 
John  Cabot,  citizen  of  Venice,  and  his  sons,  giving  him 

^  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  i.  p.  177. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  89.  The  King  of  Spain  wished  his  ambassador  to 
dissuade  Henry  from  these  "  uncertain  enterprises,"  which  "  could 
not  be  executed  without  prejudice  to  them  and  the  King  of 
Portugal." 

^  Excerpta  Hist.,  p.  92,  contains  a  notice  of  the  reception  of  a 
Sp£uiiard  who  gave  the  king  a  present  of  spices. 


320  HENRY    VII  [1497 

power  and  authority  to  sail  east,  west,  and  north, 
with  five  ships  under  the  royal  standards  and  the 
flag  of  England,  to  discover  any  islands  or  territories 
hitherto  unknown  to  Christendom.  He  was  em- 
powered in  the  king's  name  to  take  possession  of  and 
subdue  any  country  he  found,  and  rule  it  and  its  castles, 
towns,  and  villages,  as  Henry's  "  vassal  and  governor, 
locum  tenens,  and  deputy."  All  this  the  Cabot 
family  were  to  do  at  their  own  expense.  The  profits 
they  might  retain  for  themselves  with  the  exception 
of  one-fifth,  which  was  to  be  paid  to  the  king,  who 
graciously  exempted  them  from  customs  duties  on 
any  merchandise  they  might  bring  back  with  them 
from  the  newly  discovered  lands. ^  Henry,  however, 
was  rather  more  generous  than  the  terms  of  the 
letters  patent  suggest,  and,  '"'■  at  the  besy  request 
and  supplicacion  of  Cabot,"  he  manned  and  pro- 
visioned one  ship  in  the  expedition,'-  which  sailed 
from  Bristol  in  May  1497.^  The  results,  however, 
did  not  come  up  to  the  sanguine  hopes  of  the  voyagers. 
On  24th  June,  they  touched  the  mainland  of  North 
America,  probably  on  the  coasts  of  Labrador.  On 
these  frozen  shores  they  discovered  no  "  castles, 
cities,  or  villages  "  to  be  occupied  in  the  king's  name, 
nor  did  they  return  rich  with  gold  and  spices.  They 
sailed  first  south  and  then  north-west  without  coming 
across  any  trace  of  human  occupation  except  snares  set 
to  catch  game  and  a  needle  for  making  nets.  They 
were  able  to  report,  however,  the  existence  of  rich 
fishing  grounds   which   would    make   England   inde- 

^  The  patent  is  printed  in  full,  Rymer,  Foedera,  xii.  595-6. 

2  This  is  founded  on  a  statement  in  the  City  Chronicle,  p.  224. 

'  The  date  of  this  voyage  was  formerly  in  dispute,  1494  being 
assigned  to  it  by  some  writers,  but  the  correct  date  1497  has  long 
been  ascertained.  Harrisse,  Jean  et  Sebastien  Cabot,  52-60  ;  Biddle, 
Memoir  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  71-9;  Busch.,  op.  cit.,  p.  361. 


1498]  VOYAGES   OF   DISCOVERY  321 

pendent  of  Iceland.^  The  reward  of  £10  paid  on 
10th  August  "  to  hyme  that  founde  the  new  Isle  "  is 
not  the  measure  of  Henry's  satisfaction,  for  Cabot 
received  a  grant  of  £20  a  year  to  be  paid  from  the 
customs  of  Bristol.-  Cabot  was  styled  the  '"  Great 
Admiral."  He  was  the  man  of  the  hour.  "  These 
English  run  after  him  like  mad  people,"  was  the 
comment  of  a  Venetian  visitor. 

Preparations  were  now  made  for  an  adventure  on 
a  much  larger  scale,  which  roused  Ayala  to  protest 
to  Henry  that  the  land  he  was  in  search  of  was 
already  in  the  possession  of  the  King  of  Spain,  "  But 
though  I  gave  him  my  reasons,"  he  wrote,  "  he 
did  not  like  them."  ^  Ayala  and  Puebla  speak  of 
the  whole  expedition  as  equipped  by  Henry,  and 
recent  research  has  supported  this  view.*  The  king 
realised  that  great  issues  were  at  stake,  and  proved 
it  by  giving  his  support  during  these  very  critical 
years. 

Cabot's  second  expedition  of  five  ships  sailed  in 
the  spring  of  1498,  with  the  object  of  re\'isiting  the 
recently  discovered  land,  and  attempting  to  open  up 

1  Harrisse,  op.  cit. 

2  Excerpta  Historica,  p.  113;   Pat.,  Dec,  1497. 
^  Berg.,  Spanish  Col.,  i.  p.  177. 

*  Biisch,  p.  361  ;  Excerpta  Hist.,  116,  117  ;  Stow,  AnjuUee,  482  ; 
Berg.,  177  ;  Harrisse  quoting  Puebla,  pp.  328-9  ;  Brown,  No.  750. 
Harrisse,  op.  cit.  (p.  102),  Cunningham,  op.  cit.  (pp.  419,  444),  and 
Thorold  Rogers,  Hist,  of  Agriculture,  iv.,  Pref.  ix.,  xii.,  take  the  view 
that  Henry  gave  little  help,  "  which  view,"  says  Dr.  Busch,  "  really 
has  nothing  in  its  favour  except  its  antiquity."  Busch,  p.  361. 
Harrisse's  words  are  a  frank  acknowledgment  of  his  reason  for 
rejecting  the  evidence  of  Puebla,  Ayala,  and  the  City  Chronicle  : 
*'  Ausei  ne  croyons-nous  pas,  malgre  I'expression  employee  par 
Puebla  et  Ayala,  que  les  cinq  navires  furent  expedies  aux  frais  de 
Henry  VII.,  dont  I'avarice  etait  notoire."  The  tradition  of  Henry's 
blind  avarice  has  grown  into  a  myth  which  some  writers  prefer  to 
any  evidence  they  may  find  contradicting  it. 

X 


322  HENRY    VII  [isoi 

trade  with  it.^  John  Cabot  seems  to  have  died  during 
the  voyage,  and  one  ship  damaged  by  storm  had  to 
put  back  into  an  Irish  port.  The  voyage  cannot  have 
been  a  great  success.  No  reference  to  the  adventurers' 
return  has  been  found,  though  we  know  that  the 
squadron  was  expected  back  in  September  1498, 
and  that  Sebastian  Cabot  returned  in  safety.  He  is 
never  heard  of  again,  however,  in  Henry'semployment.- 
The  king  had  lost  interest  in  voyages  of  discovery ; 
the  results  of  his  attempts  to  share  with  Spain  the 
riches  of  the  New  World  had  been  disappointing. 
He  gave  no  support  to  the  subsequent  voyages 
made  by  Bristol  citizens,^  which  all  being  directed 
to  the  north-west  failed  to  find  the  "  Spice  Islands." 
They  opened  uj)  the  Newfoundland  fishery,  however, 
and  this  attracted  the  king's  notice.  In  1501  he 
granted  a  patent  to  three  Portuguese  merchants 
residing  in  Bristol  to  sail  on  voyages  of  discovery 
under  the  royal  flag.^  The  language  of  the  patent 
suggests  a  revival  of  the  king's  hopes.  They  were 
empowered  to  take  possession  of  any  land  they  found, 
to  carry  English  subjects  to  settle  there,  to  govern 
the  new  lands,  appointing  deputies  to  govern  towns 
and  cities,  and  make  and  execute  laws.  The  patentees 
were  to  enjoy  the  office  of  King's  Admiral,  were  to 
have  exclusive  rights  of  trading  for  ten  years,  and  of 
importing  gold,  silver,  and  precious  stones.  Further, 
they  were  empowered  to  punish  any  one  who  visited 

»  The  letters  patent  authorising  the  expedition  were  dat«d 
Feb.  3,  1408.  They  have  been  printed  by  Biddle,  Met7i.  of  S.  Cabot, 
pp.  76-7,  and  by  Harrisse,  pp.  327-8. 

!»  There  is  a  period  in  Cabot's  life  of  which  practically  nothing  is 
known.     Biddle,  op.  cit.,  pp.  91-3. 

»  It  is  curious  that  none  of  these  voyages  are  referred  to  in  Ricart's 
Calendar,  ed.  L.  Touknin  Smith. 

*  19th  March  1501 ;  printed  by  Biddle,  App.  312-20. 


15021  VOYAGES   OF   DISCOVERY  323 

the  new  land  without  permission.  This  expedition 
must  have  reached  America  or  Newfoundland,  for 
in  the  following  year  there  were  in  London  three 
men  found  by  the  Bristol  merchants  in  an  "  Hand 
ferre  beyonde  Irelond  ;  the  which  were  clothid  in 
Beestes  Skynnes,  and  ete  Raw  fflcssh,  and  Rude  in 
their  demeanure  as  Beestes."  ^  Their  wildness,  how- 
ever must  have  yielded  to  the  civilising  influences  of 
fifteenth -century  London  with  some  rapidity,  for  two 
years  later  two  of  them,  who  were  kept  by  Henry 
at  Westminster,  were  "clothed  like  Englishmen  and 
could  not  be  discerned  from  Englishmen."  '^  In 
September  1502,  the  Bristol  merchants  "  that  have 
bene  in  the  New  founde  Launde  "  were  granted  £20 
from  the  king's  privy  purse. ^  Some  members  of  the 
expedition  obtained  another  patent  in  December 
1502,  similar  to  the  first,  but  with  an  extension  of  the 
time  of  exclusive  trading  to  forty  years,  and  the 
voyages  continued  till  the  end  of  the  reign. 

As  we  have  seen,  they  were  only  partially  success- 
ful. In  spirit  and  object  they  were  worthy  of  the 
voyages  of  the  Elizabethan  period ;  they  hoped  to 
plant  English  settlers  beyond  the  sea,^  and  acquire 
new  land  for  the  English  Crown,  but  the  contrast  of 
actual  achievement  with  these  high  hopes  is  pathetic. 
The  explorers  found  no  territory  suitable  for  commerce 
or  colonisation,  though  the  fact  that  such  a  develop- 
ment was  contemplated  is  very  interesting.  A  few 
rare  animals,  Newfoundland  hawks,  "  wild  cattes," 
and  "  popyngays  "  presented   to  the  king,  and  the 

1  City  Chron.,  p.  258.  ^  Stow,  Atmalcs,  p.  485. 

^  Excerpta  Historica,  129.  In  January  of  this  year  "the  men 
who  fovmd  Thisle  "  had  received  £5.     Ibid.,  p.  126. 

*  Priests  sailed  in  the  ships  that  the  Christian  faith  might  follow 
the  EngUsh  flag. 


324  HENRY    VII  [1502  9 

unhappy  "  wilde  men  "  who  dragged  out  their  exist- 
ence in  Westminster,  these  were  the  only  tangible 
results  of  the  voyages  of  the  reign.  They  had, 
however,  a  certain  importance.  To  have  reached 
the  mainland  of  America  before  Columbus  was  no 
slight  achievement.  The  experience  learnt  from  the 
disappointments  of  these  early  voyages  made  the 
deeds  of  the  Elizabethan  seamen  possible.  John 
and  Sebastian  Cabot  were  the  pioneers  of  a  great 
host  of  mariners  who  led  England  to  find  her  destiny 
on  the  seas  and  to  found  the  first  among  "  all  the 
British  dominions  beyond  the  seas." 

It  is  easy  to  undervalue  the  effect  of  these  early 
voyages  upon  the  thought  as  well  as  upon  the  practice 
of  the  succeeding  generation  of  Englishmen.  Added 
to  the  revelations  of  the  scientists,  they  annihilated 
men's  preconceived  ideas  of  the  universe.  Astrono- 
mers and  geographers  taught  that  the  earth  "  far  from 
being  the  centre  of  the  universe  was  itself  swept 
round  in  the  motion  of  one  of  the  least  of  its  countless 
systems."  ^  Much  that  men  had  believed  to  be  true 
was  proved  to  be  false.  The  cloud  that  from  the 
beginning  of  things  had  hung  thick  and  dark  round 
the  borders  of  ci\'ilisation  was  suddenly  lifted. 

1  Bryce,  Holy  Raman  Empire,  p.  313  ;  cf.  Froude,  Short  Studies, 
i.  404. 


CHAPTER    IX 

LAST   YEARS:    1503-1509 

At  the  end  of  1503  Henr>^  felt  at  last  secure.  "  The 
king's  estate  was  very  prosperous  ;  secured  by  the 
amity  of  Scotland,  strengthened  by  that  of  Spain, 
cherished  by  that  of  Burgundy  ;  all  domestic  troubles 
quenched,  and  all  noise  of  war  (like  a  thunder  afar 
off)  going  upon  Italy."  ^  Henceforward  the  story  of 
the  king's  reign  loses  dramatic  interest.  The  struggle 
for  the  throne  was  over.  England  was  safe  and 
growing  in  prosperity;  the  House  of  Tudor  was 
despotic  in  England,  and  a  power  abroad.  Meaner 
ambitions  filled  the  king's  last  years.  The  histor}^  of 
the  reign  is  no  longer  filled  with  "  roughe  and  sharpe 
battailes,  pernicious  seditions,  strife,  tumulte,  and 
the  deathe  of  many  noble  and  meane  persons,"  but 
with  "  the  contencion  of  familiar  thinges,  the  gnawinge 
at  the  hartes  and  the  frea tinge  of  myndes  and  vowes  "  - 
— in  short,  with  all  the  intricate  manoeuvres  of  a  rest- 
less and  elaborate  diplomacy. 

In  the  beginning  of  1504  Henry's  fifth  Parliament 
met.  It  was  probably  summoned  by  Henry  in  order 
to  strengthen  his  hand  in  dealing  with  Suffolk.  On 
January  25  it  was  opened  l>y  a  speech  from  Arch- 
bishop Warham,  who  had  followed  Morton  as  Chan- 
cellor. Acts  of  attainder  were  passed  against  Suffolk 
and  his  friends,  and  the  measure  by  which  concessions 
were  made  to  the  Hanse  merchants  ^  was  probably 

^  Bacon,  op.  cit.,  p.  217.  ^  HaU,  Chronicle,  p.  499. 

'  See  above,  p.  176. 

3-25 


326  HENRY    VII  [1504 

designed  to  procure  Suffolk's  surrender.  Though  the 
Act  had  no  very  important  consequences,  being 
ignored  as  soon  as  Suffolk's  departure  from  Aix  in 
April  1504  made  the  alliance  of  the  Hanse  merchants 
useless,  it  is  a  striking  proof  that  Henry  anticipated 
grave  danger  from  the  earl's  manoeuvres. 

The  exile's  recent  adventures  made  the  king  uneasy. 
He  had  remained  a  long  time  at  Aix,  eating  his  heart 
out  in  inactivity,  overwhelmed  by  debt,  and  harassed 
by  his  creditors.  Maximilian  only  g^ve  him  just 
enough  help  to  keep  his  head  above  water.  Early 
in  1504  there  was  a  change  in  his  position  Attracted 
by  the  specious  promises  of  Duke  George  of  Saxony, 
who  hoped  to  use  the  exile  in  negotiating  an  alliance 
with  Henry.  Suffolk  fled  from  Aix  in  April  1504, 
leaving  his  brother  Richard  behind  him  as  a  hostage 
for  the  payment  of  his  debts.  IMisfortune  still  pursued 
him.  On  his  way  through  Gueldres  with  a  safe 
conduct  he  was  seized  by  Duke  Charles  of  Gueldres 
and  kept  in  close  confinement  in  Hatten.^  Duke 
Charles  was  at  this  time  struggling  to  throw  off  the 
overlordship  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and,  like  the 
Duke  of  Saxony,  he  hoped  that  the  possession  of 
Suffolk  might  win  him  the  English  alliance.  Henry 
was  certainly  desperately  anxious  to  get  hold  of 
Suffolk.  In  the  light  of  after  events,  it  appears  that 
the  king  overrated  the  danger,  but  he  was  no  prophet, 
and  the  head  of  Perkin  Warbeck,  who  had  shaken 
his  throne,  still  mouldered  on  London  Bridge.  In 
the  autumn  of  1504  there  were  rumours  that  Henry 
intended  to  pay  the  Duke  of  Gueldres  a  large  sum 
for  Suffolk's  surrender,  and  he  urged  that  Spanish 

•  On  this  subject  see  Dr.  Busch,  op.  cit.,  p.  368,  note  9,  referring 
to  extracts  from  the  Dresden  State  Archives;  also  L.  and  P. 
Hen.  VII.,  i.  260-2. 


1503]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  327 

influence  should  be  used  to  obtain  it,  "  thus  enabling 
him  to  make  an  example  of  him  to  his  kingdom." 
Henry's  relations  with  Philip  were  becomincp  difficult. 
Philip  was  annoyed  at  the  suggestion  that  Henry  should 
pay  the  Duke  of  Gueldres  for  Suffolk's  surrender,  as 
he  knew  the  money  would  be  used  against  him.  New 
duties  had  been  imposed  by  Philip  upon  English  mer- 
chants.^  Henry  retaliated,  and  there  was  bitter  feeling 
on  both  sides.    Suffolk  meanwhile  remained  at  Hatten. 

Meanwhile  negotiations  for  the  Spanish  marriage 
were  dragging  on  as  usual.  In  April  1503,  a  horrible 
rmnour  had  reached  Isabella,  that  a  marriage  between 
the  king  and  his  daughter-in-law  had  been  mentioned 
in  England.  Isabella  expressed  her  disgust  in  round 
terms.  "  It  would  be  a  very  evil  thing,"  she  ^v^ote, 
"  the  mere  mention  of  which  offends  the  ear ;  we  would 
not  for  anything  in  the  world  that  it  should  take 
place.  Speak  of  it  as  a  thing  not  to  be  endured." 
The  report  originated  with  the  garrulous  de  Puebla, 
and  seems  to  have  been  founded  on  gossip  alone, 
and  even  then  his  story  was  that  a  marriage  be- 
tween Henry  and  Katherine  was  much  "  talked  of  in 
England,"  not  that  Henry  contemplated  such  a  step.^ 
One  historian,  however,  accepts  de  Puebla's  words  as 
a  proof  that  Henry  contemplated  marrying  Katherine, 
and  uses  some  strong  words  about  the  "  monstrous 
proposal — an  outrage  upon  nature."  In  the  absence  of 
any  confirmatory  evidence,  and  in  view  of  de  Puebla's 
spiteful  knack  of  making  baseless  charges,  Henry's 
innocence  of  this  intention  can  be  presumed.^ 

Katherine's  position  in  England  waiting  for  the 
delayed  betrothal  was  not  very  dignified.    Isabella  was 

1  This  is  a  difficult  point  which  has  already  been  discussed.  See 
above,  p.  169.  ^  BoTg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  p.  295. 

3  Gairdner,  Henry  VII.,  p.  190  ;   Busch,  op.  cU.,  pp.  207,  378. 


828  HENRY    VTI  [1503 

anxious  to  extricate  her  from  it.  The  preparations 
for  her  departure — a  feint  before — were  to  be  pushed 
on  in  earnest.^  Isabella  also  rather  quaintly  proposed 
to  dispose  of  Henry's  rumoured  intentions  with  regard 
to  Katherine  by  suggesting  another  lady  as  the  object 
of  his  attentions  in  the  person  of  her  niece  the  Queen 
of  Naples.  By  the  summer  the  difficulties  had  been 
adjusted  for  the  moment,  and  a  marriage  treaty, 
already  drafted  in  September  1502,  was  ratified  by 
Henry  (June  23,  1503).- 

Ferdinand,  Isabella,  and  Henry  bound  themselves 
to  use  their  influence  at  the  court  of  Rome  to  obtain 
a  papal  dispensation  for  the  marriage  between  Henry 
and  Katherine,  who  had  become  related  in  the  first 
degree  of  affinity  through  the  previous  marriage 
between  the  latter  and  the  late  Prince  Ai'thur.  The 
question  as  to  the  consummation  of  the  marriage, 
now  raised  for  the  first  time,  derives  considerable 
importance  from  later  events.  The  inquiries  made  by 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  in  England  led  them  to 
believe  that  the  marriage  had  not  been  consummated, 
and  Ferdinand  announced  this  to  his  ambassador  in 
Rome,  explaining,  however,  that  the  terms  of  dis- 
pensation must  be  made  to  cover  the  possibility  of 
an  actual  union  having  taken  place,  in  order  to  avoid 
any  objection  on  the  part  of  the  English,  "  who  are 
much    disposed    to    cavil."  ^     The    other    provisions 

1  Isabella,  however,  condemned  Henry's  attempt  to  keep  the 
dowry  in  round  terms  as  a  "  barbarous  and  dishonest  proposal, 
not  consonant  with  reason  or  with  right  human  or  divine."  The 
opinion  of  the  lawyers  she  consulted  on  the  point  was  much  more 
guarded,  though  on  the  whole  favourable  to  her  point  of  view.  See 
Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  pp.  304,  305. 

2  Rymer,  xiii.  76-86  ;   Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  pp.  30(3-8. 

^  Dr.  Busch  discusses  the  whole  question  of  the  various  papal 
bulls  and  briefs,  with  their  bearing  on  the  divorce  proceedings. 
Op.  cit.,  pp.  376-8. 


1504]  LAST    YEARS:    1503-1509  829 

followed  the  precedent  of  the  treaty  for  the  marriage 
of  Katherine  and  Arthur,  the  instalments  of  the 
dowry  already  received  being  taken  in  part  payment 
of  the  dowry  due  for  the  second  marriage.^  The 
betrothal  ceremony  followed  two  days  later.  The 
treaty  was  confirmed  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  in 
September,  and  by  Henry  in  the  following  March.'-^ 

Ferdinand's  formal  ratification  contains  eulogistic 
words  about  Henry :  "He  possesses  all  and  every 
virtue  of  a  great  king  ;  his  faithfulness  especially  is 
so  great  that  he  would  prefer  to  die  rather  than  break 
his  word."  His  private  letters  to  his  ambassador 
show  that  he  was  genuinely  pleased  at  the  treaty, 
and,  though  he  thought  its  terms  rather  unfavourable 
to  Spain,  the  value  of  the  English  alliance  outweighed 
these  disadvantages.  The  King  of  France  had  made 
an  attack  upon  Rousillon,  and  Ferdinand  hoped  that 
Henry  would  help  him  in  accordance  with  the  treaty. 
He  appealed  for  2000  English  infantry,  and  revived 
the  old  lure  of  the  conquest  of  Guienne  and  Normandy. 
Isabella's  letters  breathe  the  same  spirit  of  satisfac- 
tion. She  spoke  of  the  great  love  she  had  always 
borne  Henry,  and  urged  her  ambassador  to  spread 
abroad  reports  that  Henry  was  going  to  send  a 
considerable  body  of  troops  to  Spain,  "  because  as 
you  will  see  such  tidings  and  rumours  will  inspire 
France,  and  will  produce  a  favourable  impression  in 
Italy."  Henry's  letters  of  the  same  date  are  very 
different  in  tone. 

At  the  risk  of  labouring  the  point  unduly,  the 
complete  change  in  the  relative  positions  of  England 
and  Spain  must  be  noticed.     The  situation  from  1485 

1  On  the  same  23rd  June  a  commercial  treaty  was  signed,  for  which 
Bee  above,  p.  182. 

'  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  Nos.  372-8,  380.     Rymer,  xiii.  76-9. 


330  HENRY    VII  [1503 

to  1497  is  reversed,  and  in  1503  it  is  the  prestige  of 
the  English  alUance  that  is  considered  worth  some 
sacrifice  b}'^  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  It  becomes  the 
normal  thing  for  them  vehemently  to  urge  Henry  to 
assist  them,  and  for  the  latter  to  adopt  an  attitude 
of  irritating  indifference.  Many  of  the  delays  were 
deliberately  introduced  by  Henry.  The  key  to  his 
difficult  policy  in  this  matter  was  his  desire  not  to 
lose  his  strong  position.  As  long  as  the  marriage  was 
put  off  and  Katherine  remained  dependent  upon  him, 
he  had  the  whip  hand  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 

There  was  considerable  delay  in  obtaining  the  papal 
dispensation.  For  this  Henry  was  not  responsible. 
Two  Popes,  Alexander  VI.  and  Pius  III.,  had  died  in 
rapid  succession,  and  on  1st  November  1503  Julius  II. 
had  been  installed  as  Pope.  Time  went  on,  and  in 
spite  of  the  urgent  representations  of  the  Spanish 
ambassador,  the  dispensation  was  still  delayed.  The 
new  Pope  consented  to  send  an  informal  brief  to  com- 
fort the  dying  Queen  of  Spain  in  her  last  days,  but  the 
formal  bull  was  still  withheld.  He  excused  himself 
to  Henry,  who  ^^^th  flattering  haste  had  despatched 
an  embassy  to  congratulate  him  on  his  elevation,  and 
give  him  his  "  filial  and  Catholic  homage,"  on  the  plea 
that  the  case  needed  full  investigation.  ^ 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  Prince  Arthur's 
death  was  the  end  of  Katherine's  brief  happiness, 
and  that  henceforward  she  was  made  miserable  by 
Henry's  cruelty.  The  exact  opposite  was  the  case 
for  some  years.  Henry  continued  to  treat  Katherine 
in  the  spirit  of  his  promise  to  her  parents.  In  July 
he  was  providing  money  for  her  household  at  the 
rate  of  £100  per  month,   and  ordering  that  if  any 

1  Berg.,  Spanish  Col.,  i.  pp.  309,  314,  326,  328,  330;  L.  and  P., 
ii.  112-125.     See  Busch,  op.  dt.,  p.  376,  note  3. 


1604]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  331 

surplus  remained  it  was  to  be  given  to  the  princess 
to  spend  as  she  Hked.  A  little  later,  when  Katherine 
had  an  attack  of  ague,  Henry  took  her  with  him  to 
Richmond  and  then  spent  a  fortnight  with  her,  at 
Windsor,  "  hunting  deer  in  the  forest  nearly  every 
day."  When  she  had  another  and  more  serious  attack, 
Henry  wrote  a  very  affectionate  letter  to  her  from 
Sheppy  Island,  asking  anxiously  for  news  of  her, 
assuring  her  that  he  loved  her  as  his  own  daughter, 
and  was  ready  to  do  anything  for  her  that  might 
give  her  some  pleasure. 

The  Spanish  ambassador  Estrada  wrote  telling 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  of  Henry's  kindness  to 
Katherine.  In  the  same  letter  he  gives  an  interesting 
reference  to  the  king's  method  of  training  his  heir. 
"It  is  quite  wonderful  how  much  the  king  likes 
the  Prince  of  Wales.  He  has  good  reason  to  do  so, 
for  the  prince  deserves  all  love.  But  it  is  not  only 
from  love  that  the  king  takes  the  prince  with  him  ; 
he  wishes  to  improve  him.  Certainly  there  could  be 
no  school  in  the  world  better  than  the  society  of  such 
a  father  as  Henry  VII.  He  is  so  wise  and  attentive 
to  everything,  nothing  escapes  his  attention.  ...  If 
he  lives  ten  years  longer,  he  will  leave  the  prince 
furnished  with  good  habits,  and  with  immense  riches, 
and  in  as  happy  circumstances  as  man  can  be."  ^ 

A  little  later  Katherine  wrote  asking  Henry  to  settle 
the  quarrels  between  various  members  of  her  house- 
hold ;  but  he  excused  himself  from  the  task,  saying 
that,  as  Spanish  subjects,  they  were  not  under  his 
jurisdiction.  Yet  in  spite  of  this  disclaimer,  he 
secretly  settled  the  matter,  Donna  Elvira's  control 
over  the  household  being  confirmed.  The  king  was 
anxious  that  Katherine  should  not  know  of  the  part 

»  Berg.,  Spanish  Col.,  pp.  329,  330,  331-5,  338. 


332  HENRY    VII  [1504 

he  had  taken  in  it :  •"  he  did  not  \\-ish  to  cause  dis- 
satisfaction to  the  princess  in  an\i;hing."  Donna 
Elvira  was  the  proud  recipient  of  a  present  from  the 
king — a  St.  Peter  in  gold  to  be  used  in  a  head-dress — 
a  special  mark  of  favour  hitherto  given  by  Henry 
only  to  royal  ladies.  Every  scrap  of  evidence  that 
remains  proves  that  Henry  was  kind  and  considerate 
to  Katherine.  De  Puebla's  gossiping  letters  give  a 
vivid  picture  of  the  king's  attitude  at  this  date. 
The  question  of  his  marriage  was  again  brought 
up.  Henry  professed  that  he  had  not  made  up  his 
mind  to  take  another  wife,  but  he  asked  "such  very 
particular  questions  "  about  the  Queen  of  Naples, 
that  de  Puebla  wrote  requesting  that  a  picture  of  the 
said  Queen,  "  portraving  her  figure  and  the  features 
of  her  face,  should  be  made  as  quickly  as  possible  and 
sent  over  to  England."  ^ 

The  king  and  his  council  seemed  pleased  at  the 
suggestion  of  the  marriage  with  the  Queen  of  Naples, 
and  de  Puebla  viTOte  :  "  He  lauded  your  highnesses 
above  the  cherubim."'  Henry,  however,  declared  he 
was  not  going  further  without  obtaining  more  parti- 
culars about  his  proposed  bride,  "  for  your  Highnesses 
must  know,"  wrote  de  Puebla,  "  that  if  she  were 
ugly  and  not  beautiful,  the  King  of  England  would  not 
have  her  for  all  the  treasures  in  the  world,  nor  would 
he  dare  to  take  her,  the  English  thinking  so  much 
as  they  do  about  personal  appearance."  Henrj'  was 
anxious  to  send  an  embassy  to  Valencia  to  make  a 
personal  report  on  the  lady.  De  Puebla  opposed  this, 
explaining  his  action  when  writing  to  Ferdinand  thus, 
"  I  have  never  seen  an  ambassador  who  has  gone  hence 
to  Spain,  and  who  has  not  come  back  disgusted  with 
the  country,  owing  to  the  inconvenience  of  travelling, 

»  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  pp.  303,  324,  327,  333-4,  338. 


1504]  LAST    YEARS  :    150a-1509  833 

which  in  England  is  hke  going  from  one  wedding 
to  another." 

The  air  was  full  of  marriage  rumours.  Henry  had 
begun  to  think  about  another  possible  bride,  the 
recently  widowed  Duchess  of  Savoy.  A  match  be- 
tween the  Princess  Mary  and  the  eldest  son  of  the 
Archduke  Philip  had  been  proposed,  and — what  was 
very  disquieting  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella — a  French 
ambassador  had  been  sent  to  England  to  propose  a 
marriage  between  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  Margaret  of 
Angoulome.^  All  this  made  Ferdinand  very  uneasy, 
and  he  surpassed  liimself  m  attempts  to  gain  from 
Henry  the  closer  alliance  to  which  he  was  unwilling  to 
commit  himself.  A  letter  of  his  dated  November  24, 
1504,  just  after  Estrada  returned  to  Spain,  abounds 
with  flattering  expressions  of  his  regard  for  Henry.- 
He  enclosed  a  copy  of  the  papal  dispensation,  and 
a  decree  allowing  English  ships  the  same  rights  and 
privileges  of  freighting  in  Spanish  ports  as  Spanish 
ships,  this  concession  being  made  "  on  account  of  the 
very  great  love  and  the  bond  of  indissoluble  alliance 
and  friendship  which  exists  between  us."  ^  Two  days 
later  Ferdinand's  whole  position  had  been  changed. 

On  November  26,  1504,  on  the  very  day  that  her 
daughter  Katherine  was  wTiting  an  anxious  letter 
saying  that  she  could  not  be  satisfied  or  cheerful 
until  she  heard  from  her  mother,  Isabella  of  Castile 
died.  The  effect  of  her  death  illustrates  Bacon's 
description  of  her  as  "  the  corner-stone  of  the  greatness 
of  Spain  that  hath  followed."     It  brought  another 

1  Ihid.,  Nos.  427,  460,  467-8  ;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  125-46, 
34U-62. 

«  L.  aivd  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  241-3. 

'  In  the  following  spring  Henrj'  issued  orders  to  the  same  effect. 
Berg.,  Spanish  Col.,  Xos.  43S,  439.  442  ;   Rymer,  xiL  114-16. 


334  HENRY    VII  [i504 

change  in  the  shifting  quicksands  of  European  politics. 
Henceforward  Ferdinand  and  his  son-in-law  Philip 
struggled  for  the  possession  of  Castile,  which,  as 
it  passed  by  descent  to  Isabella's  daughter  Juana, 
Philip  claimed  to  rule  in  her  right.  He  took  the 
title  of  King  of  Castile,  and  prepared  to  set  out  with 
Juana  for  their  kingdom.  Ferdinand,  however,  under 
the  terms  of  Isabella's  will,  had  been  appointed  regent 
during  Juana's  absence,  and  he  hoped  to  retain  the 
chief  authority  there. 

The  threatened  separation  of  Castile  and  Aragon 
had  a  considerable  effect  on  the  tortuous  policy  of 
Henry's  later  years.  He  gradually  drifted  away 
from  the  alliance  with  Spain,  which  had  been  the 
keynote  of  his  former  diplomacy.  Ferdinand  was 
now  a  much  weaker  ally,  and  there  were  ominous 
signs  of  a  coalition  against  him.  Henry  had  no  wish 
to  find  himself  "  left  to  the  poor  amity  of  Aragon," 
and  feared  that  "whereas  he  had  been  heretofore  a 
kind  of  arbiter  of  Europe,  he  should  now  go  less  and 
be  overtopped  by  so  great  a  conjunction."  ^  Henry 
had  never  really  trusted  Ferdinand  ;  they  had  known 
each  other  too  well  for  mutual  confidence,  but  since 
the  marriage  of  Katherine  and  Arthur  their  diplo- 
matic relations  had  been  marked  by  great  surface 
cordiality.  From  the  date  of  Isabella's  death  this 
disappears,  and  Henry's  attitude  to  Ferdinand  varies 
with  the  security  of  the  latter's  hold  upon  Aragon. 
Their  altered  relations  reacted  in  a  very  unfortunate 
way  on  the  position  of  the  Princess  Katherine. 
Henry's  mind  was  filled  \\ith  much  more  glittering 
schemes,  and  she  had  become  the  pledge  of  an  alliance 
that  had  ceased  to  attract.  She  became  a  pawn  in 
the   very  ugly  game  played    by  Henry   and    Ferdi- 

*  Bacon,  op.  cii.,  p.  226. 


1504-5]  LAST    YEARS:    1503-1509  335 

nand,  and  her  happiness  was  sacrificed  to  their 
knavish  intrigues.  The  removal  of  Isabella's  per- 
sonal influence  over  Ferdinand  had  almost  as  bad 
an  effect  on  Katherine's  position  as  the  material  loss 
of  the  kingdom  she  had  ruled.  Ferdinand,  who 
seems  to  have  cared  little  for  his  children,  added  to 
his  daughter's  difficulties  by  withholding  the  later 
instalments  of  the  marriage  portion,  and  by  leaving 
her  without  money.  Neither  of  the  kings  wished  to 
undertake  to  provide  for  her.  Henry  would  acknow- 
ledge no  responsibility  for  her  support  as  long  as  the 
marriage  portion  was  withheld.  She  was  between 
the  upper  and  the  nether  millstones.  Kindness, 
however,  prompted  Henry  to  go  beyond  his  denial 
of  legal  obligation,  and  he  provided  for  the  prin- 
cess's necessities  to  some  extent.  A  man  of  more 
generous  temper  would,  no  doubt,  have  done  this 
without  haggling  about  the  marriage  portion.  But 
Henry  was  not  a  man  of  generous  temper,  and 
Katherine's  necessities  became  a  lever  to  extort 
from  Ferdinand  the  later  instalments  to  which  he 
was  bound. 

For  some  time  after  Isabella's  death  both  the 
competitors  for  Castile  were  bidding  for  Henry's 
friendship,  and  he  hoped  to  gain  Philip's  friendship 
without  abandoning  the  alliance  with  Ferdinand.  He 
was  still  thinking  of  the  bride  proposed  for  him  by 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  In  the  summer  of  1505 
Henry's  envoys,  John  Stile  and  two  others,  were  in 
Spain  visiting  Valencia  to  report  on  the  lady's  charms. 
The  "  curious  and  exquisite  enquiries  "  they  were 
directed  to  make  remain  on  record,^  and  their  answers 
suggest  that  they  were  impressed  with  the  serious 
nature  of  their  embassy  and  quite  devoid  of  any  sense 

^  Memorials,  pp.  22S-239. 


338  HENRY    VII  [1505 

strong  for  his  age  (about  fifty-six),  with  a  fresh 
complexion  and  a  smiling  countenance.  He  had  lost 
a  tooth  in  front  which  made  him  lisp,  and  he  had  a 
slight  cast  in  his  left  eye  when  speaking  or  smiling. 
There  were  rumours  about  his  marriage,  but  the 
envoys  had  been  told  by  one  of  the  king's  chaplains 
that  he  had  been  ad\dsed  by  his  physician  not  to 
marry  because  of  "  a  certeyn  diseas  the  whiche  he 
hathe  under  his  syde."  He  was  the  master  of  a 
great  treasure,  which  he  kept  in  a  strong  castle.' 

Before  Henry  received  the  report  of  these  envoys, 
he  had  gone  a  little  further  in  the  direction  of  the 
alliance  with  Philip,  and  was  weighing  in  his  mind 
the  attractions  it  offered.  But  before  throwing  in 
his  lot  with  Maximilian  and  Philip  he  was  anxious 
for  trustworthy  information  about  their  real  attitude. 
He  instructed  one  of  his  envoys,  John  Savage,  to 
make  careful  inquiry  as  to  whether  Maximilian 
sincerely  offered  his  daughter  to  him,  or  whether 
he  was  playing  the  hypocrite. - 

About  the  same  time  (June  27,  1505)  there  was  a 
curious  little  scene  at  Richmond.  Young  Prince 
Henry,  on  the  eve  of  his  fifteenth  birthday,  made  a 
solemn  declaration  before  Fox,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
that  he  had  been  contracted  during  his  minority  to 
the  Princess  Katherine,  and  that,  being  now  near 
the  age  of  puberty,  he  refused  to  ratify  the  marriage 
contract,  and  denounced  it  as  null  and  void.  This 
declaration  was  signed  by  Prince  Henry  and  by  six 
witnesses.  It  seems  certain  that  it  was  not  a  per- 
sonal protest  on  the  part  of  Prince  Henry,  but  a 
political  move  of  the  king's,  who  wished  to  postpone 
the  wedding  owing  to  Ferdinand's  altered  position 

1  Mem.  of  Hen.  VII.  (Rolls  Ser.),  pp.  240-281. 
«  Berg.,  Spanish  Col.,  No.  429. 


1605]  LAST    YEARS:    1503-1509  339 

and  the  oiher  alliances  proposed  for  his  son.^  At 
that  very  time  French  ambassadors  were  in  England 
negotiating  for  Prince  Henry's  marriage  with  Mar- 
garet of  Angouleme,-  which  had  been  discussed  at 
intervals  since  1502.  Henry  professed  himself  anxious 
to  be  related  by  marriage  to  Louis,  "  the  prince  he 
loved  most  in  the  world  "  ;  but  he  proposed  himself, 
not  Prince  Henry,  as  bridegroom  for  Margaret  of 
Angouleme,  who  was  then  about  thirteen.  Louis 
seems  to  have  been  quite  content  with  the  substitu- 
tion. He  promised  to  give  his  niece  a  dowry  of 
100,000  crowns — more  than  the  sum  given  to  a 
daughter  of  France — and  gave  assurances  that  he 
would  use  his  influence  to  obtain  the  surrender 
of  Suffolk.^  In  October  rumours  of  a  French  match 
were  abroad  in  England.  It  was  said  that  Henry 
thought  of  marrying  Louise  of  Savoy,  Margaret's 
mother,  and  that  he  had  also  been  offered  a  French 
and  a  Spanish  bride.  In  addition,  the  king  was  said 
to  be  secretly  discussing  two  marriages  for  Prince 
Henry — one  with  Eleanor,  the  daughter  of  Philip, 
and  the  other  with  the  daughter  of  the  King  of 
Portugal.  The  Portuguese  ambassador  reported  that 
it  was  likely  that  the  marriage  with  Katherine  would 
be  undone,  as  it  weighed  much  upon  the  king's  con- 
science.^   This  anticipates  the  appearance  of  the  royal 

1  Brewer,  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VIII.,  iv.  3,  2588  ;  Herbert,  Life  of 
Hen.  VIII.,  pp.  387-9  ;   Berg.,  Spanish  CaL,  No.  435. 

■■*  It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  Sir  Charles  Somerset — afterwards 
Lord  Herbert — one  of  the  witnesses  who  signed  Prince  Henry's 
declaration— was  the  ambassador  who  was  sent  to  France  in  August 
to  discuss  these  proposals.     Excerpia  Hist.,  p.  133. 

=>  L.  ami  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  125-46. 

*  Ibid.,  ii.  145-6.  The  idea  of  the  match  with  the  Queen  of 
Naples  had  by  this  time  been  given  up.  Little  is  heard  of  it  after 
the  return  of  Henry's  envoys.  He  probably  shelved  it  in  favour 
of  more  brilliant  prospects. 


340  HENRY    VII  [1505 

conscience  that  played  such  an  important  part  in  the 
next  reign. 

Thus  half  the  crowned  heads  of  Europe  were  in- 
volved one  way  or  another  in  negotiations  for  an 
alliance  with  Henry.  "  He  will  make  his  choice  where 
best  he  may,"  wrote  the  Portuguese  ambassador. 
Other  observers  doubted  whether  he  was  in  earnest 
in  many  of  these  plans,  and  whether  he  was  not  de- 
ceiving the  kings  of  France  and  Spain  for  his  own 
purposes,  especially  with  a  view  to  obtaining  the 
surrender  of  Suffolk.  His  desire  to  obtain  the  hand 
of  Margaret  of  Savoy  seems  to  have  been  genuine 
enough,  but  the  lady  had  no  liking  for  the  proposed 
match.  Negotiations,  however,  were  continued.  Maxi- 
milian sent  ambassadors  to  England  in  August,  bring- 
ing with  them  two  portraits  of  Margaret  and  the  news 
that  Suffolk  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Archduke  Philip. 

Relations  with  Spain  were  not  improved  by  com- 
mercial difficulties.  Some  English  merchants  trading 
to  Seville  had  been  refused  permission  to  export 
goods  thence  in  their  own  ships  in  spite  of  Ferdinand's 
recent  decree,  and  eight  hundred  English  sailors  had 
appeared  before  the  king  at  Richmond,  "  all  ruined 
and  lost."  According  to  de  Puebla,  Henry  fell  into 
a  great  rage,  and  reproached  him  bitterly.  "  The 
words  which  came  from  his  mouth  Avere  vipers,  and 
he  indulged  in  every  kind  of  passion."  In  a  few  days 
however,  Henry  had  recovered  his  temper  and  sent 
de  Puebla  a  present  of  a  buck.^ 

De  Puebla  seems  to  have  flattered  himself  that 
the  negotiations  with  the  archduke  would  come  to 
nothing  owing  to  his  unpopularity  in  England.  He 
tells  a  curious  story  of  how  he  checkmated  Katherine, 
who  had  been  quite  won  over  by  Maximilian's  am- 

1  Berg.,  Nos.  438,  439,  442  ;   Mem.  of  Hen.  VII.,  p.  436. 


1505]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  841 

bassadors,  and  who  wrote  a  secret  letter  to  try  and 
induce  Henry  to  agree  to  meet  the  archduke  and  the 
Queen  of  Castile  at  Calais  on  their  way  to  Spain. 
De  Puebla  declared  to  Katherine,  "  with  tears  run- 
ning down  his  cheeks,"  that  this  suggestion  of  an 
interview  was  due  to  the  machinations  of  Don  Manuel 
(the  treacherous  brother  of  her  mistress  of  the  robes, 
Donna  Elvira),  who  wished  to  injure  Ferdinand. 
Katherine  was  persuaded  to  write  another  letter  to 
Henry  contradicting  the  first,  which  de  Puebla  rushed 
off  to  deliver  personally. 

By  the  end  of  the  year  Ferdinand  and  Henry  had 
drifted  still  further  apart.  Ferdinand  had  made 
peace  with  France,^  and  was  on  the  eve  of  marrying 
Germaine  de  Foix,  niece  of  Louis  XII.,  who  re- 
nounced in  her  favour  his  claims  to  the  kingdom  of 
Naples.  Thus  the  great  cause  of  dispute  between 
France  and  Spain  was  removed,  and  Ferdinand's 
smooth  announcement  that  he  and  the  King  of 
France  had  named  Henry  as  the  "  guardian  of  the 
treaty "  could  not  conceal  the  widening  breach. 
Henry  on  his  side  was  gravitating  towards  the  arch- 
duke, and  rumour  declared  that  a  league  between 
Henry,  Maximilian,  Philip,  James  of  Scotland,  and 
perhaps  the  Pope  had  been  formed. 

Suffolk's  claims  were  still  causing  Henry  intense 
irritation.  The  Venetian  envoy  wrote  that  he  was 
a  great  thorn  in  Henry's  side,  "  for  he  knows  that  the 
people  of  England  love  and  long  for  him,  and  one 
day  or  other  he  might  do  the  King  of  England  much 
mischief."  He  had  passed  into  Philip's  jDOwer  by 
the  capture   of  Hatten  in  July  1505,  and  the   sub- 

*  Treaty  of  Blois,  12  Oct.  1505.  Andre's  suggestion  that  Henry 
brought  about  this  friendship  between  France  and  Spain  is  very 
wide  of  the  mark.     Andr6,  Annales,  pp.  88-89. 


342  HENRY    VII  [1605 

mission  of  the  Duke  of  Giieldres.  There  was  great 
excitement  in  the  Netherlands,  where  the  feehng 
against  England  was  very  strong  owing  to  renewed 
commercial  difficulties.  Philip's  subjects  hoped  "  to 
put  a  curb  into  the  mouth  of  the  King  of  England," 
but  their  master's  attitude  was  a  disappointment. 
His  relations  with  Henry  were  becoming  cordial 
The  negotiations  for  the  hand  of  Margaret  were 
continued,  and  twice  during  1505,  in  April  and 
September,  Henry  lent  large  sums  of  money  to  Philip 
for  the  purpose  of  his  voyage  to  Spain.^  The  prob- 
able explanation  is  that  Henry  was  anxious  to  see 
the  King  of  Castile  in  Spain  acting  as  a  check  upon 
Ferdinand,  whose  recent  marriage  with  Germaine 
de  Foix  threatened  a  Franco-Spanish  entente.  The 
rumoured  coalition  mentioned  by  the  Venetian  am- 
bassador was  beginning  to  take  shape.  Henry  was 
ranging  himself  with  Burgundy,  Castile,  and  the 
Empire  against  Aragon  and  France. 

Meanwhile  the  unhappy  Suffolk  had  another  change 
of  gaolers.  Philip,  unwilling  to  offend  Henry  by 
keeping  his  rebel,  had  returned  him  to  Duke  Charles. 
He  remained  for  some  months  in  prison  in  Gelder- 
land,  where  he  was  already  heavily  in  debt.  He  wrote 
many  pitiful  letters  to  Philip  in  his  extraordinary 
spelling,  asking  Philip  to  order  his  release.  "  Ef  I 
vare  the  fardes  yend  of  the  vord  I  veld  be  at  ys 
comand  ment  to  fovel  fele  ys  plessor,"  Kc.^  In  the 
autumn  of  1505  he  was  again  handed  over  to  Philip 

>  Excerpta  Historica,  pp.  132,  133.  Dr.  Busch  thinks  the  large  sums 
set  down  in  the  Priv'y  Purse  accounts  (£108,000  and  £30,000)  are 
a  mistake.  Busch,  p.  186,  note  2.  Pliilip  had  been  detained  in 
Flanders  by  the  war  in  Gelderland. 

*  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  253-7,  263-5,  ii.  142,  381-2  ;  Ellis, 
Letters,  iii.  (i.)  123-34. 


1505-6]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  848 

and  kept  in  strict  captivity  in  Namur.^  At  last,  in 
the  beginning  of  1506,  Suffolk,  wearied  with  vain 
promises  and  disappointed  hopes,  beset  with  creditors 
on  all  sides,  made  up  his  mind  to  try  and  settle  the 
matter  with  Henry  himself.  He  did  not  abandon 
his  lofty  claims.  His  communication  took  the  form 
not  of  an  appeal  for  pardon,  but  of  negotiation  for 
a  treaty.  Envoys  from  "  the  Duke  of  Suffolk  of 
England  "  were  sent  to  treat  with  duly  authorised 
persons  to  be  appointed  by  Henry  as  to  the  settle- 
ment of  the  troubles  in  England  which  arose  from 
the  disagreement  between  him  and  the  king.  He 
asked  for  restoration  to  his  estates  and  to  the  dukedom 
of  Suffolk,  and  for  help  to  recover  his  liberty.  There 
was  a  pro\ision  that  the  agreement  should  be  signed 
by  Henry  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  confirmed 
by  Parliament."^  But  on  the  very  day  that  Suffolk 
drew  up  these  precious  instructions  (January  28, 
1505-6)  his  fate  was  settled  by  an  arrangement 
between  Philip  and  Henry. 

A  fortunate  accident  had  thrown  an  opportunity 
of  meeting  Philip  and  Juana  in  Henry's  way.  After 
waiting  long  for  a  favourable  wind,  they  had  sailed 
on  the  10th  of  January,  "  with  great  pomp  passing 
the  narrow  seas,"  but  after  four  days  in  the  Channel 
the  high  winds  increased  to  a  "  terrible  hurricane," 
the  same  "  hidyous  wind  "  that  blew  the  golden 
eagle  from  the  vane  of  St.  Paul's.  The  guns  and 
everything    movable    were    thrown    overboard,    the 

'  The  explanation  of  these  changes  seems  obscure.  It  may  have 
been  a  manoeu\Te  to  deceive  Henry.  The  second  loan  had  already 
been  paid  over  to  Phihp,  who  had  nothing  more  to  gain  for  the 
moment.  The  question  is  difficult  and  not  perhaps  of  great  im- 
portance.    See  Busch,  pp.  190,  371. 

*  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  27&-28o  ;   Ellis,  Letters,  iii.  (i.)  140,  141. 


344  HENRY    VII  [1506 

ship  heeled  over,  PhiHp  narrowly  escaped  being 
swept  overboard.  Fire  broke  out  three  times  on  the 
ship,  which,  driven  before  the  gale,  at  last  reached 
land  at  Portland.  The  other  ships  of  the  fleet  were 
scattered.  The  one  on  which  the  Venetian  am- 
bassador sailed  put  in  at  Falmouth,  which  he  described 
as  "  a  wild  spot  where  no  human  being  ever  comes 
save  the  few  boors  who  inhabit  it."  He  reported 
that  the  Cornishmen  were  a  barbarous  race,  speaking 
a  language  so  different  from  that  of  Londoners  that 
the  latter  could  not  understand  them  any  better  than 
the  Venetians.^ 

Philip  at  once  sent  to  inform  Henry  of  his  arrival, 
"  calling  him  father,"  and  suggesting,  in  spite  of  the 
advice  of  his  suite,  that  he  should  take  the  op- 
portunity of  visiting  him.  Henry  welcomed  the 
suggestion.  It  was  one  of  the  occasions  upon  which 
he  loved  to  dazzle  all  eyes  by  his  magnificent 
court  and  win  fair  opinions  by  the  display  of  princely 
generosity.  The  neighbouring  gentry  were  ordered 
to  attend  and  entertain  the  royal  guests.  Servants, 
palfreys,  and  litters  were  sent  to  Portland,  and  on 
January  31st  Henry  received  Philip  at  Windsor 
Castle.  He  rode  out  to  meet  him,  and  the  two 
princes  saluted  and  embraced  each  other  bareheaded. 
Henry  treated  his  guest  with  splendid  courtesy.  A 
week  of  stately  ceremonial  and  la\ash  entertainment 
followed.  There  were  several  private  interviews 
between  the  two  kings,  who  vied  with  each  other 
in  their  courtesies,  conveying  and  reconverting  each 
other  to  their  lodgings  with  much  polite  show.  The 
King  of  Castile  was  introduced  to  Princess  Katherine 
and  to  Princess  Mary.  Katherine  danced  in  Spanish 
array  ;    Princess  Mary  also  danced,  and  played  upon 

1  Brown,  Ven.  Cal.,  Nos.  862-865. 


150(3]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  345 

the  lute  and  the  clavegalles,  to  every  one's  great  ad- 
miration. The  week  passed  pleasantly,  hunting  deer 
in  the  forest,  playing  tennis,  "  horse-baiting,"  hawking, 
and  wrestling  between  Englishmen  and  Spaniards. 
On  the  9th  of  February  Philip  was  invested  with 
the  Order  of  the  Garter.  After  the  ceremony  the 
treaty  of  alliance,  binding  both  parties  to  mutual 
defence  and  to  a  surrender  of  rebels,  was  signed  by 
Henry  and  Philip,  who  swore  to  it  on  the  gospels 
and  the  sacrament.  ^  Prince  Henry  then  received 
the  Order  of  the  Golden  Fleece. - 

Philip  visited  Richmond  and  London  before  he 
left.  He  parted  from  Henry  on  Monday,  1st  March, 
and  made  his  way  to  Falmouth  to  join  the  queen  and 
his  suite.  The  visit  had  been  a  great  success.^  There 
does  ngi  seem  to  be  much  proof  of  the  story  that 
Henry  made  capital  out  of  Philip's  misfortunes  and 
wrung  concessions  from  an  unwilling  guest,  though 
his  host's  personal  influence,  calculated  splendour, 
and  generous  treatment  *  may  have  induced  Philip  to 
make  arrangements  which  he  afterwards  regretted." 

A  treaty  for  the  marriage  of  Henry  and  ]Margaret 
of  Savoy,  signed  by  Philip  on  March  20,  1506,  was 
very   favourable   to   Henry.     Philip's   sister   was   to 

'  Rymer,  xiii.  123—7;  Berg.,  No.  451. 

"  Queen  Juana  had  arrived  at  Windsor  on  Feb.  10,  but  unfortu- 
nately, in  view  of  her  later  history,  there  is  no  account  of  her 
appearance  or  behaviour. 

^  For  accounts  of  the  visit  see  Mem.  of  Hen.  VII.,  pp.  282-303 ; 
Berg.,  Spanish  Cal,  No.  451;  Bro-mi,  Ven.  Cal,  Nos.  862-869; 
Paston  Letters,  Hi.  403—6. 

*  Philip  said  that  Henry  could  not  have  done  more  for  him  had 
he  been  his  ovra  father.  He  had  paid  him  every  honour  and  defrayed 
his  expenses  and  those  of  his  retinue  on  their  journey. 

*  The  tone  of  his  language  does  not  support  the  theory  that  he 
felt  that  he  had  been  victimised,  though  Bacon  suggests  that  the 
King  of  Castile  was  "  willing  to  seem  to  be  enforced." 


346  HENRY    VII  [1506 

have  a  dowry  of  300,000  crowns,  and  to  receive  from 
Philip  yearly  the  sums  of  18,850  crowns  and  of  12,000 
crowns  in  satisfaction  of  her  jointure  from  her  two 
previous  marriages.  Maximilian  and  Philip  were  to 
use  all  their  influence  to  induce  Margaret  to  consent 
to  the  marriage.  The  treaty  also  provided  for  a 
strict  alliance  between  the  two  princes,  and  that  all 
rebels  and  fugitives  should  be  given  up  by  both 
monarchs.  Philip  signed  the  treaty  on  behalf  of 
Maximilian  also,  and  promised  that  he  would  confirm 
it  within  four  months.^  The  commercial  treaty 
(April  30),  which  accompanied  it  was  even  more 
favourable  to  England,  and  in  fact  contained  so 
many  concessions  that  Philip  was  reluctant  to 
ratify  it.^ 

Neither  treaty  contains  any  provision  as  to  the 
treatment  of  the  Earl  of  Suffolk.  There  are 
several  conflicting  accounts  on  this  point.  Bacon 
gives  a  vivid  story  of  Henry's  private  conversations 
with  Philip  on  the  subject  of  "  that  same  harebrain 
wild  fellow  my  subject,  the  Earl  of  Suffolk,"  but 
unfortunately  his  report  seems  to  be  imaginative. 
There  is  also  no  authority  for  the  statement  of  an 
eye-witness  who  described  Philip's  reception  that 
"  unaxed  the  King  of  Castile  proferred  the  king  to 
yield  Edward  Rebell."  According  to  another  account, 
Henry  gave  a  "  solemn  promise  in  writing  sealed  with 
his  seal  "  that  Suffolk  should  receive  a  full  pardon 
for  all  his  offences.  The  Venetian  ambassador  relates 
that  Henry  had  given  a  promise  and  public  oath  to 
pardon  Suffolk  and  restore  him  to  his  estates.  Hall, 
following  Vergil,  also  states  that  Henry  "  promised 
faithfully  of  hys  awne  offre  to  pardon  Edmund  de  la 

1  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  No.  460,  463-G,  483. 

2  Rymer,  xiii.  132-142.     See  above,  p.  170. 


1506]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  847 

Poole  of  all  paynes  and  execucions  of  death."  The 
truth  lies  somewhere  between  these  different  reports.' 

Philip  sent  one  of  his  suite  to  conduct  Suffolk 
to  England.  He  was  handed  over  to  the  English 
garrison  at  Calais  on  March  16th,  arrived  in  England 
on  24th  March — nearly  a  month  before  Philip  sailed 
— and  was  at  once  lodged  in  the  Tower.  His  life  was 
spared  as  Henry  had  promised,  but  he  remained  in 
prison  until  the  end  of  the  reign. - 

The  treaties  signed  by  Philip  were  valueless  until 
the^'^  were  ratified.  The  confirmation  of  the  marriage 
treaty,  though  anxiously  expected  by  Henry,  was  not 
made  until  2nd  September,  and  there  was  obviously 
no  intention  of  ratifj^ing  the  conimercial  treaty.  In 
spite  of  this,  Henry  had  been  doing  his  best  to  fulfil 
his  obligations  to  Philip,  and  in  the  summer  of  1506 
wrote  offering  to  help  his  ally  against  the  Duke  of 
Gueldres,  who  had  again  rebelled.^  Maximilian, 
however,  had  to  give  Henry  the  unwelcome  news 
that  he  had  failed  to  persuade  his  daughter  Mar- 
garet to  agree  to  the  marriage.  He  had  written 
personal  letters  and  sent  ambassadors.  The  duchess 
said  that,  "  though  an  obedient  daughter,  she 
would  never  consent  to  so  unreasonable  a  mar- 
riage "  ;  but  he  thought  her  reluctance  was  due  to 
the  machinations  of  the  French  foxes,  and  promised 
Henry  that  he  would  not  give  up  until  he  had  ob- 

1  Mem.  of  Hen.  VII.,  pp.  282-303 ;  Letter  from  A.  de  Croy  to 
Maximilian,  Berg.,  Spanish  Col.,  i.  pp.  379,  385  ;  Brown,  Ven.  Cal., 
No.  870;  Hall,  Chronicle,  p.  501. 

2  Chron.  of  Calais,  pp.  5,  6 ;  Brown,  Ven.  Cal.,  Nos.  869,  872,  874. 
*  He  offered  a  thousand  archers  for  three  months,  or  a  loan  of 

20,000  gold  cro^TOS  to  pay  other  troops.  He  seems  to  have  helped 
Philip  effectively  by  dissuading  Louis  of  France  from  supporting 
the  rebellious  Duke.  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  289-300,  ii.  164r-7  ; 
Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  No.  491. 


348  HENRY    VII  [1506 

tained  her  consent,  and  that  he  would  pay  her  a 
personal  visit  for  that  purpose.  Henry  wTote  rather 
coldly  in  reply  that  he  was  sorry  that  INIadame  Mar- 
garet made  so  many  difficulties  about  the  treaty  of 
marriage,  hinting  that  he  might  accept  "  one  of 
the  great  and  honourable  matches  that  were  daily 
offered  to  him  on  all  sides."  ^ 

Meanwhile  the  situation  in  Spain  needed  careful 
watching.  Philip  had  reached  Castile  safely,  but 
found  himself  opposed  at  every  point  by  Ferdinand. 
It  was  the  ambition  of  each  to  govern  Castile  in  right 
of  Juana.  Her  character  was  another  difficulty. 
Already  before  she  left  Flanders  there  were  sinister 
rumours  that  she  was  mentally  unsound.  The 
reports  about  her  became  more  and  more  unfavour- 
able. The  Venetian  ambassador,  who  in  September 
1506  had  reported  that  she  bore  herself  "  like  a 
sensible  and  discreet  woman,"  and,  in  January  1506-7, 
that  she  showed  great  bravery  during  the  storm 
at  sea,  wrote  in  March  that  her  "  intellects  were  not 
sufficiently  sound  for  the  burden  of  government."  ^ 
From  this  time  all  the  reports  harp  on  the  same 
string,  and  it  is  impossible  not  to  suspect  that  Philip 
took  the  worst  possible  view  of  his  wife's  malady 
owing  to  her  constant  quarrels  with  him  and  her 
expressed  determination  to  rule  Castile  herself.  Un- 
prejudiced observers  like  the  Venetian  envoy,  who 
saw  Juana  while  she  was  at  Falmouth,  used  language 
which  hints  at  a  dark  conspiracy  between  Ferdinand 
and  Philip  to  deprive  Juana  of  the  government  on 
the  ground  of  her  incapacity.  The  ambassador 
wTote  in  April  1506  that  Philip  and  Ferdinand  had 
arranged   "  to  circulate  a  report  before  she  arrived 

^  Berg.,  iSpaniah  Cal.,  No.  491. 

*  Brown,  Fen.  Cal.,  Nos.  854,  865,  872. 


1506]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  349 

in  Spain  that  she  was  unfit  to  govern,"  with  a  view 
to  preventing  the  CastiHan  nobles,  who  were  de- 
votedly attached  to  her,  from  insisting  on  the  queen 
governing  them  in  person.  It  was  notorious  that 
Philip  and  Juana  got  on  badly  together,  and  the 
theory  of  a  plot  between  husband  and  father-in-law 
seems  probable  enough  on  the  face  of  it.^  In  June 
Philip  was  thinking  of  shutting  her  up  in  a  strong 
fortress,  a  measure  from  which  Ferdinand  dissuaded 
him.  Philip  and  Ferdinand  certainly  made  friends 
in  the  summer  of  1506,  the  basis  of  their  agreement 
being  that  they  were  to  govern  Castile  jointly,  Juana 
being  excluded  on  the  ground  of  incapacity.^ 

In  September  the  whole  situation  was  changed  by 
Philip's  death  at  the  age  of  thirty.  The  prospect 
that  Ferdinand  would  attempt  to  exclude  Prince 
Charles  from  Castile  roused  all  the  latent  hostilities 
of  Europe.  It  was  rumoured  that  the  King  of  France 
would  support  Ferdinand's  action,  and  Maximilian 
wrote  to  Henry  in  great  alarm,  begging  for  his  help 
and  for  a  loan  of  100,000  crowns  to  defend  the  young 
archduke's  dominions.  Henry  saAv  that  the  un- 
ratified treaties  he  had  made  with  Philip  were  so 
much  waste  paper  after  his  death,  but,  while  he 
hastened  to  disclaim  any  further  interest  in  the  war 
in  Gelderland,  he  showed  an  inclination  to  cling 
to  his  friendship  with  Maximilian  in  hope  of  the 
marriage  with  Margaret.  A  new  commercial  treaty 
was  also  considered.  The  other  side  also  made  a 
bid  for  his  alliance.  French  ambassadors  hastened 
to  England  to  offer  the  daughter  of  the  Duke  of 
Angoulcme  to  Henry  in  marriage,  but  Henry  refused 
this  offer,  not  having  given  up  hope  of  the  Duchess 

1  Ibid.,  No.  873. 

^  Berg.,  Spanish  Cai.,  i.  Suppl.,  Intro,  xxiv.-lxxx. 


350  HENRY    VII  [1506 

Margaret.  There  is  ample  evidence  of  Henry's 
estrangement  from  Ferdinand.  The  usual  recrimi- 
nations about  the  marriage  portion  had  taken  on 
a  very  bitter  tone,  and  Ferdinand  excused  himself 
on  the  plea  that  the  remaining  part  of  the  portion 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  late  Queen  Isabella's  trustees, 
that  he  was  absent  in  Italy,  and  that  Juana  was 
unable,  through  her  "  unspeakable  affliction  "  at  the 
death  of  her  husband,  to  siom  an  order. 

The  Princess  Katherine  was  the  unfortunate 
scapegoat  of  their  hostility.  In  December  1505  she 
had  appealed  to  Ferdinand  for  money  in  vain,  and 
she  declared  that  she  and  her  servants  had  not  a 
single  maravedi  except  for  food.  She  complained 
bitterly  that  de  Puebla's  letters  were  "  full  of  calumny 
and  lies,"  and  that  he  was  the  cause  of  all  her  suffer- 
ings. In  the  spring  and  summer  of  1506,  she  had 
several  severe  attacks  of  fever.-  In  April  she  wrote 
that  she  was  in  debt  for  food,  and  that  Henry,  owing 
to  the  non-payment  of  the  marriage  portion,  refused 
to  pay  her  debts,  though  she  asked  him  with  tears. 
Her  people  were  ready  to  beg,  and  she  herself  had 
for  six  months  been  near  death. 

It  is  difficult  to  reconcile  these  bitter  complaints 
with  the  friendly  tone  of  Katherine' s  letters  to 
Henry  and  his  to  her.  Henry  -wTote  in  October 
putting  a  house  at  Fulham  at  her  disposal,  as  she 
thinks  it  will  improve  her  health  to  be  so  near  him. 
If  she  prefers  any  other  house,  she  has  only  to  sav 
so  and  it  will  be  kept  for  her.  Next  year  her  posi- 
tion was  imjDroved  by  a  new  marriage  scheme,  which 
promised  to  add  another  link  to  the  weakened  chain 
of  the  Anglo-Spanish  alliance.  It  is  from  one  of 
Ferdinand's  letters  to  Katherine,   written  in  March 

*  Everett  Green,  Letters  oj  Royal  Ladies,  131-15-L 


1507-8]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  351 

1507,  that  Henry's  proposal  that  he  should  marry 
Philip's  widow,  Juana,  is  first  mentioned.^  The 
golden  crown  of  Castile  outweighed  the  attractions  of 
the  proposed  marriage  with  Margaret,  and  although 
negotiations  for  that  marriage  were  continued, 
Henry's  chief  efforts  between  1507  and  1508  were 
secretly  directed  to  the  new  scheme. 

Henry's  attitude  in  this  matter  has  been  made  the 
subject  of  many  hard  words.  He  has  been  repre- 
sented as  a  monster  who  was  willing  to  marry  a 
maniac  in  order  to  snatch  at  a  cro^vn,  but  a  review 
of  the  evidence  disposes  of  the  most  revolting  part 
of  the  story."  Until  Henry  received  a  letter  from 
Ferdinand  early  in  1508,  he  had  no  reason,  as  far 
as  we  know,  to  think  that  Juana  was  mad.  Before 
the  date  of  that  letter  he  had  been  told  of  nothing 
except  the  infirmity  alluded  to  by  de  Puebla.  Henry 
was  certainly  guilty  of  a  lack  of  delicacy  in  being 
anxious  to  marry  a  woman  who  was  rumoured  to 
be  weak-minded,  but  the  very  fact  that  Juana,  with 
a  kingdom  for  her  dower,  was  incapable  of  ruling 
tempted  Henry  shrewdly  to  try  and  marry  her  and 
rule  Castile  in  her  right.  His  attitude  was  no  out- 
rage upon  contemporary  feeling  in  the  matter  of  royal 
marriages  or  upon  the  standards  of  a  coarse  age. 
When  Ferdinand  forwarded  the  darker  details  of 
Juana's  state  of  mind — the  story  of  her  insane  de- 
votion to  her  husband's  unburied  corpse,  and  so  on — 
the  negotiations  were  allowed  to  drop.^  Another  aspect 
of  the  affair  seems  to  be  evidence  of  Henry's  declining 
powers.     It   was    strange    if   he    believed    that    Fer- 

'  Berg.,  Spanish  Cat.,  p.  405. 
*  See  below.  Appendix  iv. 

3  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  Nos.   522-4,  526-7,  541,  645,  548,  551-3. 
575,  677,  388,  and  pp.  405,  409,  413,  415. 


352  HENRY    VII  [i507 

dinand  was  sincere  in  the  proposal  for  the  marriage. 
He  must  have  known  that  Ferdinand,  after  his  ex- 
perience with  PhiHp,  would  do  anything  to  prevent 
his  daughter  marrying  another  prince  who  would 
try  to  exalt  Juana's  authority  at  his  expense. 
Was  Ferdinand  likely  to  neutralise  the  union  of 
Castile  and  Aragon  ?  The  insincere  diplomacy  of  the 
period  makes  it  difficult  to  know  what  Henry  really 
believed ;  but  though  it  is  conceivable  that  he  was 
playing  with  this,  like  other  marriage  schemes,  in  order 
to  strengthen  his  diplomatic  position,  the  simpler 
explanation  that  he  was  in  earnest  about  the  match 
is  the  more  probable.  He  certainly  was  not  suffi- 
ciently sanguine  about  it  to  make  it  his  only  scheme. 
As  usual,  he  had  two  strings  to  his  bow.  As  his 
hopes  of  the  Castile  marriage  faded,  his  suit  for  the 
hand  of  Margaret  of  Savoy  became  keener.  He  was 
certainly  sincere  in  his  efforts  for  this  match,  which 
harmonised  with  the  drift  of  his  later  policy,  steadily 
setting  away  from  Spain. 

Just  before  Easter  in  1507,  Henry  had  had  a  severe 
attack  of  quinsy,  which  for  six  days  prevented  him 
from  eating  and  drinking,  and  weakened  him  so 
much  that  his  life  was  despaired  of,  but  he  had 
made  a  rapid  recovery.  Within  a  fortnight  he  was 
receiving  ambassadors  and  discussing  some  of  his 
many  marriage  schemes,  and  by  the  late  summer 
he  was  quite  restored  to  health.^  De  Puebla  wrote 
on  5th  October  1507  that  the  king  spent  every  day 
hunting  and  hawking,  that  since  he  recovered  from 
his  illness  he  had  been  better  and  stronger  than 
ever  before,  and  was  even  growing  stout.     The  same 

1  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  Nos.  511,  543  ;  Andre,  Annales,  108  ;  Brown, 
Ven.  Cal.,  Xo.  896.  See  also  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  233,  for  an 
eairlier  illness  of  the  king's. 


1507]  LAST    YEARS:    1503-1509  353 

letter  describes  Prince  Henry  as  "  already  taller 
than  his  father,  with  limbs  of  gigantic  size.  There 
was  not  a  finer  youth  in  the  world."  * 

At  the  same  time  the  scheme  for  a  marriage 
between  Henry's  daughter  Mary,  and  Philip's  son 
Charles,  which  had  been  mooted  during  Philip's 
stay  in  England,  began  to  take  definite  shape.  Fear 
of  France  made  Henry's  alliance  very  desirable  to 
Maximilian,  and  throughout  the  autumn  of  1506  am- 
bassadors discussed  the  three  points  of  the  alliance — 
the  confirmation  of  the  unwelcome  commercial  treaty, 
the  marriage  of  Mary  and  Charles,  and  the  marriage 
of  Henry  and  Margaret. 

By  the  spring  an  agreement  had  been  reached, 
and  in  May  1507  a  treaty  was  made  which  was  con- 
siderably less  favourable  to  England  than  the  un- 
ratified treaty.  The  fact  that  Henry  was  prepared 
to  accept  this  proves  that  he  appreciated  the  value 
of  the  proposed  match  between  Charles  and  Mary.^ 
In  September  1507  the  complicated  nature  of  the 
situation  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  envoys  from 
France,  Flanders,  Denmark,  Scotland,  the  Pope, 
the  King  of  the  Romans,  as  well  as  the  Spanish 
ambassador  were  with  Henry  at  Woodstock.  France 
had  declared  war  upon  Burgundy,  and  all  the  powers 
were  anxious  to  make  Henry  take  sides  definitely. 
Both  marriage  projects  were  under  discussion;  and 
though  the  king  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Duchess  Margaret 
promising  to  use  his  influence  to  prevent  France 
from  attacking  Burgundy,  and  sent  her  a  present 
of   six   horses   and   some   greyhounds,   he   continued 

1  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  No.  552. 

2  In  1499  the  Duke  of  Milan  had  asked  for  her  hand,  she  being  then 
three  years  old,  for  his  son,  but  had  been  refused.  Brown,  Ven.  Cal.^ 
No.  790. 


354  HENRY  VII  [15O8 

the  secret  negotiations  for  the  marriage  with  Juana.^ 
A  propos  of  these  presents  to  Margaret,  de  Puebla 
suggested  to  his  master  that  Henry  would  much 
appreciate  a  gift  of  black  and  chestnut  Spanish 
mules,  and  would  probably  present  Ferdinand  with 
some  English  and  Irish  hackneys  in  return.  A 
little  later  the  confusion  of  open  and  secret  schemes 
for  marriage  alliances  was  increased  by  the  reopen- 
ing of  negotiations  for  a  French  marriage,  the  pro- 
posal being  that  Prince  Henry  should  marry  the 
sister  of  the  Duke  of  Angouleme.  Nothing  came  of 
this,  but  it  was  utilised  by  Henry,  who,  by  prac- 
tice, had  gained  a  conjuror's  dexterity  in  keeping 
half-a-dozen  things  in  the  air  at  the  same  time, 
to  put  pressure  on  Ferdinand,  who  began  to  think 
that,  after  all  the  years  of  waiting,  the  marriage 
between  Katherine  and  Henry  might  never  take 
place. 

In  September  1508  Henry's  hopes  of  a  marriage 
with  Margaret  received  a  severe  check.  Maximilian 
had  written  to  her  in  September  1507  begging  her 
"  to  amuse  Henry  with  false  hopes  and  prevent  him 
allying  himself  with  France  and  Spain."  Margaret 
had  evidently  suggested  that  she  might  consider  the 
Prince  of  Wales  as  a  suitor,  but  Maximilian  told 
her  that  they  would  never  consent  to  that,  and  he 
tried  to  win  her  over  to  consider  Henry's  suit  favour- 
ably by  suggesting  that  she  might  remain  ruler  of 
the  Netherlands,  and  spend  three  or  four  months 
of  the  year  there.  Accordingly  in  October,  Mar- 
garet sent  a  "  very  loving  letter  "  to  Henry,  which 
he  at  once  read  to  de  Puebla.-     But  when  Henry 

1  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  No.  543. 

2  Ibid.,  Nos.  4fi3-8,  483,  547;  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  153-160; 
Brown,  Ven.  Col.,  Nos.  883,  885-6. 


1607]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  355 

pressed  his  suit,  INIaroraret's  real  decision  had  to  come 
out.  In  vain  Maximilian  painted  the  advantages  of 
the  Enghsh  match  in  glowing  terms,  and  referred 
to  Henry  as  "  a  pattern  of  all  the  virtues  "  ;  ^  Margaret 
made  her  refusal  very  plain,  though  she  tried  to 
soften  it  by  saying  that  she  was  fully  aware  of 
Henry's  noble  qualities,  and  would  never  marry  any 
one  but  him.  She  pointed  out,  however,  that  she 
had  already  been  married  three  times,  and  that  she 
feared  she  would  never  have  any  children,  and 
would  therefore  displease  the  King  of  England.  She 
also  referred  to  the  marriage  portion  suggested  by 
her  suitor  as  exorbitant.  It  was  obvious  that  she 
had  made  up  her  mind,  yet  Henry  did  not  give  up 
hope.  2 

In  the  other  scheme  for  uniting  the  royal  houses 
of  Austria  and  England  he  was  more  fortunate. 
On  21st  of  December  1507  the  treaty  for  the  mar- 
riage of  Prince  Charles  and  Princess  Mary  was  signed, 
and  was  accompanied  by  a  treaty  of  mutual  alliance 
between  Henry  and  Charles.  The  Princess  Mary 
was  to  receive  a  dowTy  of  250,000  crowns.  The 
betrothal  was  to  take  place  before  Easter  1508,  the 
marriage  was  to  follow  within  forty  days  of  the 
prince's  fourteenth  birthday,  and  three  months  later 
the  princess  was  to  be  sent  to  join  her  husband.^ 
The  match  was  celebrated  by  great  rejoicings  in 
the  capital,  and  by  tournaments.  Andre  wrote  a 
song  in  honour  of  Madame  Marie  to  celebrate  the 
occasion. 

Henry  was   delighted   at  his   success.     His   diplo- 

1  See  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  305,  324,  ii.  153-5. 

2  Ihid;  i.  301-3,  323-7  ;  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  No.  558. 

3  RjTner,  xiii.  171-88;  Mem.  of  Hen.  VII.,  95,  96;  Andre, 
Annales,  95-6. 


356  HENRY    VII  [1507 

macy  had  gained  a  great  triumph.  An  heiress  of 
the  house  of  Tudor  was  to  marry  one  of  the  most 
powerful  princes  in  Europe.  He  wrote  that  his 
realm  was  now  "  environed,  and  in  manner  closed 
in  every  side  with  such  mighty  princes,  our  good 
sons,  friends,  confederates,  and  allies,"  that  it  was 
perpetually  established  in  wealth,  peace,  and  pros- 
perity.^ A  comparison  with  the  state  of  England 
at  his  accession  some  twenty  years  earlier  is  a  striking 
comment  on  the  king's  rare  words  of  exultation. 
But  the  alliance  was  very  irritating  to  Ferdinand. 
A  treaty  which  profoundly  affected  his  interests  had 
been  signed  by  Henry  without  consulting  him.  It 
was  too  late  to  interfere,  but  he  did  not  conceal  his 
annoyance.  The  tone  of  his  letters  was  very  bitter. 
Yet,  much  as  he  would  have  liked  to,  he  could  not 
afford  to  quarrel  with  Henry.  The  match  was  still 
in  danger.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was  not  much  in- 
clined for  it,  and  the  king's  indifference  was  obvious. 
He  spoke  of  the  King  of  Aragon  as  a  "  stout  French- 
man," and  dropped  hints  of  some  scheme  by  which 
the  Emperor  might  rule  Castile,  apparently  as  regent 
for  Juana  and  Prince  Charles,  and  deprive  Ferdinand 
of  his  influence  there. 

In  the  face  of  this  danger  Ferdinand  had  to  try 
and  conceal  his  resentment  at  the  match  between 
Charles  and  Mary,  and  push  on  the  marriage  be- 
tween Henry  and  Katherine  by  every  means  in  his 
power.  He  wrote  to  his  ambassador  about  the 
scheme  for  an  Anglo-French  match,  and  said  that 
if  Henry  broke  faith  with  him  he  would  make  a  worse 
war  upon  the  King  of  England  than  on  the  Turks. 
These  threats,  though  not  for  publication,  show  the 

1  Halliwell,  Letters,  i.  194-6. 


1508]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  357 

feeling  of  exasperation  which  filled  Ferdinand  at 
Henrs''s  growing  independence  and  indifference. 

On  August  7,  referring  to  Henry's  very  rigid  atti- 
tude about  the  marriage  portion — he  had  demanded 
pajTnent  in  cash,  and  refused  to  accept  a  valuation 
of  the  princess's  plate  and  jewels — Ferdinand  al- 
luded to  his  extreme  covetousness,  and  said  that 
he  would  break  entirely  with  him  were  it  not  for  the 
Princess  of  Wales  He  feared  being  cheated.  In 
dealing  with  people  of  "no  honour  and  of  indif- 
ferent character."  it  was  necessary  to  take  great 
precautions ;  Henry's  demands  were  against  all  right 
and  charity.  He  even  hinted  that  Katherine  might 
be  poisoned  in  order  to  get  hold  of  her  marriage 
portion  !  Arrangements  for  its  repa\'ment  were  to 
be  made  that  Henry  might  be  freed  from  the  temp- 
tation of  killing  Katherine.  The  whole  tone  of  the 
letter  is  bitterly  hostile,  and  the  strangest  contrast 
to  the  former  flatteries. 

The  recall  of  de  Puebla  and  his  replacement  by 
Fuensalida  (now  governor  of  Membrilla),  who  had 
arrived  in  England  early  in  1508,  had  added  to  the 
friction.  Membrilla  irritated  Henry  by  adopting  an 
independent  attitude  very  different  from  the  pliancy 
of  de  Puebla.  Henry  actually  announced  that  as  the 
dowTy  had  not  yet  been  paid  the  marriage  should  not 
take  place.  He  refused  to  give  Membrilla  an  audience, 
and  the  palace  guard  refused  him  admittance.^  Both 
sides  seemed  to  be  drifting  towards  war. 

The  position  of  Princess  Katherine  at  this  moment 
was  extremely  painful.  Her  letters  are  filled  with 
pathetic  complaints  of  the  humihations  she  was 
forced    to    endure.-     She  WTote   that  she  was  abso- 

1  Andre,  Annales,  pp.  109,  110;  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  Xos.  586, 
588,  590.  *  See  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  Nos.  545-6,  603,  604. 


358  HENRY    VII  [1506 

lutely  penniless,  that  she  had  been  obliged  to  sell 
her  property,  and  that  she  was  dependent  upon 
the  king's  charity.  Revolting  as  Henry's  conduct 
appears,  something  can  be  said  in  extenuation  of  it. 
Ferdinand  must  share  the  responsibility  for  his 
daughter's  unhappy  plight.  He  refused  either  to 
contribute  to  her  support,  or  to  pay  the  remainder  of 
the  marriage  portion.  Henry  felt  that  he  was  being 
cheated,  and  what  he  gave  to  Katherine  he  gave 
grudgingly.  In  justice  to  Henry,  and  without  any 
attempt  at  special  pleading,  it  must  be  noticed  that 
there  were  scandals  in  Katherine's  household  which 
throw  some  doubt  upon  her  complaints  of  dire  poverty- 

When  Membrilla  arrived  as  ambassador  he  found 
a  state  of  affairs  in  the  princess's  household  which 
reflected  little  credit  upon  Katherine  and  much  upon 
Henry's  forbearance. 

In  1506  the  princess  had  appointed  as  her  con- 
fessor a  certain  friar,  Diego  Fernandez,  who  rapidly 
obtained  an  influence  over  her  that  was  very  injuri- 
ous to  her  reputation.  She  made  him  her  chancellor, 
distinguished  him  by  many  marks  of  favour,  and 
admitted  him  to  an  extraordinary  intimacy.  The 
whole  court  was  seething  with  scandal  about  her 
imprudent  conduct,  and  Membrilla  felt  bound  to 
communicate  the  affair  to  his  master.  He  wrote 
that  the  whole  of  the  princess's  household  was 
governed  by  this  young  friar,  who  led  her  into  many 
errors.  1  He  described  the  friar  as  "  young,  light, 
haughty,  and  scandalous  in  an  extreme  manner."  - 
Henry  himself  had  been  obliged  to  remonstrate 
sharply  with  Katherine.  Slander  already  connected 
the  name  of  the  princess  with  the  friar,  "  who  had 

'  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal.,  Supp.  to  vols.  i.  and  ii.,  p.  13. 
2  Ibid.,  pp.  14-22. 


1508]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  359 

neither  learning,  appearance,  manners,  competency,  or 
credit."  "  The  King  of  England  and  all  the  English," 
WTote  Membrilla,  "  abhor  to  see  such  a  friar  con- 
tinually in  the  palace  and  amongst  the  women."  It 
is  curious  to  notice  that  within  five  days  of  the 
date  of  Membrilla's  report  Katherine  wrote  bewail- 
ing her  miserable  position.  She  complained  that 
Henry  had  treated  her  differently  ever  since  Fer- 
dinand's alliance  had  lost  its  importance  to  him. 
She  had  been  obliged  to  sell  her  household  goods 
to  provide  herself  with  money.  Henry  had  told  her 
that  he  was  not  bound  to  provide  either  for  Kathe- 
rine or  her  servants,  but  that  the  love  he  bore  her 
would  not  allow  him  to  do  otherwise.  Katherine  was 
anxious  to  pay  some  of  her  servants  who  annoyed 
her  and  send  them  away,  but  her  greatest  afflic- 
tion was  not  having  the  means  adequately  to 
maintain  her  confessor,  the  best  that  ever  a  woman 
in  her  position  had.  and  so  on.  She  complained  that 
the  ambassador  had  quarrelled  with  the  friar,  and 
the  latter's  threat  to  leave  her  reduced  Katherine 
to  a  pitiable  state  of  distress.^  She  implored  her 
father  to  order  the  confessor  to  stay  with  her,  and 
to  write  asking  Henry  to  have  the  confessor  "very 
well  treated  and  honoured."  -  It  is  difficult  to  dis- 
cover the  truth  when  the  only  reports  we  have  come 
from  interested  parties,  one  bent  on  condemning, 
the  other  on  eulogising  the  friar.  But,  apart  from 
the  inherent  improbability  of  the  ambassador  daring 
to  write  absolutely  untrue  reports  to  his  master,  the 
friar's  own  letters  show  him  to  have  been  a  man  of 
great  coarseness  even  in  a  lax  age,  and  he  himself  re- 
ported facts  proving  that  the  princess  confided  in  him 
to  an  extraordinary   and  very  unbecoming   extent.^ 

1  Ibid.,  p.  21.  *  Ibid.  »  /jjj^  pp_  34^  43^  44^ 


360  HENRY    VII  [1508 

Further,  the  unsuitabihty  of  the  friar  for  his  position 
in  the  princess's  household  is  proved  by  the  fact 
that  he  was  in  later  years  (1515)  convicted  of  im- 
morality.^ It  is  difficult,  therefore,  not  to  concur 
in  the  ambassador's  rather  than  in  the  princess's 
estimate  of  the  confessor.  His  influence  over  Kathe- 
rine  did  not  improve  her  relations  with  Henry, 
but  we  find  the  latter  acting  with  considerable  for- 
bearance. We  have  on  record  a  striking  instance 
of  the  friar's  influence.  In  defiance  of  the  king's 
express  wish,  and  obeying  the  friar's  commands, 
the  princess  refused  to  go  to  Richmond  to  meet 
the  king.  The  English  gentlemen  who  had  come 
to  escort  her  had  to  go  to  Richmond  without  her, 
leaving  her  alone  with  the  friar  and  her  servants. 
On  the  following  day  she  made  her  appearance  at 
Richmond,  accompanied  only  by  three  of  her  women, 
the  friar,  and  two  servants.  Henry  was  not  un- 
naturally displeased  at  conduct  which  was  undig- 
nified, if  nothing  worse,  and  for  three  weeks  he 
took  no  notice  of  Katherine,  and  did  not  send  to 
inquire  for  her  when  she  fell  ill.  The  ambassador 
himself  paid  a  tribute  to  Hemy's  forbearance,  and 
admitted  that  he  had  blamed  the  king  unfairly, 
that  he  wondered  not  at  what  he  had  done  but  at 
what  he  refrained  from  doing,  especially  as  he  was 
not  of  the  temper  readily  to  allow  disobedience. 
Further,  the  ambassador's  letters  let  fall  a  hint  that 
gives  another  explanation  than  Katherine's  of  the 
necessity  that  forced  her  to  sell  her  plate.  The 
princess,  he  wrote,  was  with  difficulty  prevented 
from  selling  a  piece  of  plate  every  day  to  satisfy  the 
follies  of  the  friar.  Within  a  fortnight  the  princess 
had  sold  gold  plate  for  two  hundred  ducats,  and  had 

^  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal,  Supp.  to  i.  and  ii.,  p.  45. 


1506-7]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  361 

nothing  to  show  for  it.  It  had  all  gone  in  books 
and  in  the  friar's  expenses.  The  case  against  the 
friar  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  the  next 
Spanish  ambassador  corroborates  INIembrilla's  view 
of  the  situation.  He  speaks  of  the  friar  as  the  worst 
man  he  had  ever  kno^^^l.  It  is  obvious  that  in  the 
unfortunate  differences  between  Henry  and  Katherine 
the  fault  was  not  entirely  his.^ 

Meanwhile  the  Pope  was  again  pressing  the  claims 
of  a  crusade  against  the  Turks.  Henry,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  preserved  a  sympathetic  but  judiciously 
non-committal  attitude  to  the  question.  He  had 
been  lavish  in  expressions  of  interest,  and  had  even 
helped  the  cause  by  a  handsome  contribution,  but 
his  cautious  temperament  had  prevented  him  from 
thro^^^ng  himself  heartily  into  the  Papal  schemes.- 
But  as  Hemy  neared  the  end  of  his  life,  his  real  piety 
triumphed  over  his  caution. 

The  steady  advance  of  the  Turks  filled  Eastern 
Christendom  with  dread.  In  1506  Henry  had  been 
chosen  bj^  the  Knights  of  Rhodes,  who  were  the 
vanguard  of  resistance  to  the  Turks,  as  their  "pro- 
tector, champion,  patron,  and  defender  throughout 
the  whole  Christian  world  and  in  his  own  famous 
kingdoms."  ^  In  the  following  year,  urged  perhaps  by 
his  sharp  attack  of  quinsy,  Henry  showed  signs  of 
justif^ang  this  complimentary  title  by  definite  action. 

In  a  letter  written  from  Greenwich  on  15th  May 
1507,*  to  the  Pope,  Henry  explains  that  ever  since 
his  accession  he  had  been  intent  on  the  universal 
peace    of    Christendom.     He    had    never    cherished 

1  Ibid.,  p.  37.  2  See  above,  p.  230. 

3  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  287-8. 

*  Two  copies  of  this  letter,  differing  slightly,  remain.  See  Berg., 
Spanish  Col.,  i.  No.  519  ;    Bro%vn,  Ven.  Col.,  Xo.  893. 


362    .  HENRY    VII  [1507 

dreams  of  foreign  conquest,  not  through  lack  of 
mihtary  resources,  treasure,  and  power,  but  because 
he  was  averse  by  nature  to  the  shedding  of  Christian 
blood.  He  was  now  bound  to  nearly  all  the  princes 
of  Christendom  by  treaties  of  alliance  and  ties  of 
blood.  He  begged  the  Pope  to  restore  peace  to 
Christendom,  and,  that  being  done,  to  proclaim  a 
crusade  against  the  infidels,  and  invite  the  Christian 
princes  to  send  ambassadors  to  Rome  to  settle  the 
practical  details  of  the  proposed  joint  campaign. 
The  Holy  Father,  who  was  wise  and  strong  in  body 
and  mind  and  obeyed  by  the  princes  of  Christendom, 
would  earn  eternal  glory  if  he  avenged  the  humilia- 
tion of  centuries  on  the  detestable  infidels.  In  July 
the  Pope  wrote  in  reply  complimenting  Henry  on 
his  letter  (which  he  had  read  ten  times  himself 
and  then  read  to  the  Cardinals),  but  throwing  cold 
water  on  the  suggestion  of  an  assembly  of  ambassadors 
at  Rome,  as  previous  experience  of  such  assemblies 
had  shown  that  the  Christian  ])owers  always  failed 
to  agree  as  to  who  should  command,  what  places 
to  attack  first,  and  so  on.  He  suggested  that  help 
might  be  sent  to  those  Christian  princes  who  were 
already  fighting  against  the  infidels.^  Henry  took 
the  Pope's  hint,  and  suggested  to  Ferdinand  that 
he  might  send  an  army  of  the  renowned  English 
bowmen  to  help  him  against  the  Moors.  A  joint 
expedition  from  Spain,  Portugal,  and  England  might 
do  wonders  ;  and  it  was  believed  that  a  force  of 
English  bowmen  could  in  a  few  years  conquer  the 
whole  of  Africa.  Ferdinand's  reply  was  not  enthusi- 
astic. He  put  off  the  proposed  war  in  Africa  "  till 
his  other  affairs  should  have  been  arranged."  Henry's 
new-found  zeal  was  not  dashed,  and  in  September  he 

1  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  170-174. 


1507]  LAST    YEARS:    1503-1509  363 

wrote  another  long  letter  to  the  Pope,  urging  the 
joint  expedition  upon  him  in  the  strongest  terms. 
He  suggested  that  "  a  trinity  of  kings  from  the  west " 
might  lead  the  advance  eastwards  towards  the  Holy 
Sepulchre,  and  promised,  with  every  appearance  of 
sincerity,  that  even  if  no  other  prince  was  forth- 
coming, he,  Henry,  would  undertake  the  war  in  his 
own  person.^  Nothing  came  of  this  appeal,  however, 
the  Pope  being  occupied  with  more  mundane  cares 
until  April  in  the  last  year  of  the  king's  life,  when 
Julius  II  wrote  again  to  revive  the  scheme  for  an 
attack  upon  the  Turks.  The  appeal  came  too  late ; 
the  dying  king  was  unable  to  accede  to  the  Pope's 
request.  During  the  stormy  zenith  of  his  career 
Henry  had  felt  an  impulse  to  take  up  the  burden  of 
a  Christian  prince  in  defence  of  Christendom  against 
the  Turks,  but  except  for  his  pecuniary  contribu- 
tions it  remained  an  impulse  only.  The  defence  of 
his  kingdom  and  the  settlement  of  his  dynasty  ab- 
sorbed all  his  attention  until  late  in  life,  when 
success  brought  him  leisure,  and  illness  reminded 
him  of  the  claims  of  religion — too  late. 

In  the  same  year  there  was  friction  between  Eng- 
land and  Scotland.  The  marriage  between  James 
and  Margaret  had  been  a  great  success  from  the 
political  point  of  view,  though  the  bride  herself  seems 
to  have  been  miserable  enough.  Henry  had  been 
able  to  count  upon  Scotch  neutrality  and  sometimes  on 
Scotch  sympathy  in  his  relations  with  foreign  powers. 
James,  for  instance,  had  adopted  a  very  correct 
policy  in  the  question  of  the  Earl  of  Suffolk,-  and 
in  1505  he  had  agreed  not  to  revive  the  old  alliance 

1  Ibid.,  174-9,  Woodstock,  18th  Sept. 

"  See  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  207-210,  211,  213;  Epis.  Reg. 
Scot.,  i.  6-9,  30-34. 


364  HENRY    VII  [1508 

between  Scotland  and  France.'  In  spite  of  this, 
however,  French  influence  was  still  strong  in  Scot- 
land, and  in  later  years,  the  traditional  policy  of 
stirring  up  strife  with  England  was  revived.  James 
IV.  was  led  to  take  up  the  cause  of  Duke  Charles 
of  Gueldres,  and  even  wrote  to  Henry  (8th  Janu- 
ary 1507)  threatening  to  abandon  his  alliance  with 
England  if  Henry  supported  the  Duke's  enemies. 
Further,  James  had  interfered  in  Ireland,  in  support  of 
O'Donell.  The  growing  unfriendliness  was  emphasised 
in  January  1508,  when  Henry  arrested  the  Earl  of 
Arran,  who  was  travelling  through  England  %vithout 
a  passport  on  his  way  back  from  France.  There  had 
been  many  complaints  before  of  this  practice  of 
Scotchmen  travelling  in  disguise  through  England, 
but  James  strongly  resented  Arran's  detention.- 

The  dispute  gave  Thomas  Wolsey.  one  of  Henry's 
chaplains,  his  first  diplomatic  employment.  He 
was  sent  to  Scotland  on  January  23. 1507-8,  and  Arran 
was  allowed  to  leave  England.  The  great  difficulty 
was  the  attitude  of  the  Scotch  nobles.  James 
seems  to  have  been  loyal  to  the  English  alliance, 
but  the  traditional  friendship  with  France  was  much 
more  popular  in  Scotland.  Wolsey's  diplomacy,  how- 
ever, succeeded  in  reconciling  Henry  and  James,  and 
the  friendship  between  England  and  Scotland  was  not 
broken  until  the  next  reign. '^ 

In  the  summer  of  1508,  it  was  rumoured  that 
Maximilian  was  thinking  of  one  of  his  sudden  changes 
of   policy,  and,  lured  by  the   hope  of   alliance  with 

1  See  Ayloffe,  Cat.  of  Anct.  Charters,  p.  316;  Andro,  Annates, 
pp.  105-7. 

2  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  207-10,  211-13,  237-42;  Epis.  Reg. 
Scot.,  i.  6-9,  30-34. 

*  See  Wolsey's  report.  Pinkerton,  Hist,  of  Scotland,  ii.  445- 
450  ;   L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  Pref.  Ixi.  ;  Eng.  Hist.  Rev.,  iii.  471-7. 


1508]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  365 

France,  contemplated  abandoning  the  lately  arranged 
marriage  between  Charles  and  Mary,  in  order  that 
the  former  might  marry  the  Princess  Claude  of  France, 
to  whom  he  had  once  been  betrothed.  Henry  had 
again  been  seriously  ill  in  February  1508,  and  it  was 
rumoured  that  he  was  in  the  last  stages  of  consump- 
tion. He  did  not  intend,  however,  to  let  slip  the 
threads  of  his  policy,  and,  though  reluctant  to 
break  with  France,  hoped  to  hasten  the  postponed 
betrothal  ceremony  between  Mary  and  Charles.^  It 
was  these  conflicting  aims  that  gave  Wolsey  a  second 
opportunity  of  distinguishing  himself.  In  August 
1508  he  was  sent  into  Flanders  by  Henry.  Of  the 
details  of  this  mission  we  have  no  account,  but 
Wolsey  evidently  succeeded  in  overcoming  for  the 
moment  Maximilian's  inclination  to  France.  In 
October  he  was  again  in  the  Netherlands  discuss- 
ing the  inevitable  difhculties  about  the  Princess 
Mary's  dowry,  and  trying  to  stir  up  opposition  to 
Ferdinand's  government  of  Castile.-  Henry's  letters 
to  Wolsey  prove  that  even  in  November  1508  he 
still  clung  to  the  hope  of  a  marriage  with  Margaret. 
On  7th  November  he  wrote  to  his  "  dear  and  beloved 
cousin  "  an  affectionate  letter,  and  told  his  envoy  that 
if  he  married  the  duchess  he  would  be  quite  contented 
to  make  his  abode  in  Burgundy  for  a  good  space  every 
year,  and  that  if  the  government  was  not  entrusted 
to  him  and  Margaret  jointly,  he,  Henry,  would  be 
quite  willing  to  let  her  go  there  to  stay  whenever 
convenient.^ 

1  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.  342-9  ;   Brown,  Ven.  Cal,  No.  906. 

^  His  report  gives  an  account  of  the  reception  of  the  English 
embassy  at  Antwerp  (L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  425-7),  and  the 
••  sweet  words  "  of  the  emperor  on  the  subject  of  the  Enghsh 
aUiance  {ibid.,  i.  pp.  372-4). 

3  Ibid.,  i.  449-52. 


366  HENRY    VII  [1508 

At  last,  after  a  long  delay,  which  was  very  annoy- 
ing to  Henry,  Maximilian's  envoys  arrived  in  Eng- 
land, and  a  proxy  marriage  between  Charles  and 
Mary  took  place  at  Greenwich  on  17th  December.^ 
The  ceremony  was  followed  by  arrangements  as 
to  the  repayment  by  Maximilian  of  the  loan  from 
Henry.  2 

Strangely  enough,  the  last  few  months  of  Henry's 
life  saw  a  reversal  of  the  whole  diplomatic  situation. 
The  isolation  of  Ferdinand  and  the  coalition  against 
him,  upon  which  Henry  prided  himself,  gave  way, 
and  the  king's  triumph  was  shattered.  Events  in 
Italy  gave  a  new  direction  to  the  ambitions  of  the 
princes  of  Europe.  Ferdinand  had  secured  his  hold 
upon  Naples,  and  by  a  successful  campaign  in  1507 
Louis  XII.  had  regained  his  influence  in  North  Italy. 
Maximilian  chose  this  moment  to  renew  his  claims 
to  imperial  dominion  in  Italy,  and  found  himself  re- 
sisted in  his  design  by  France,  Spain,  and  Venice. 
But  while  he  pursued  these  shadowy  schemes,  the 
revolt  of  the  Duke  of  Gueldres,  assisted  by  France, 
was  endangering  the  substance  of  his  hold  upon 
Burgundy.  At  this  crisis  the  alliance  with  England, 
concluded  in  December  1507,  was  very  valuable.^ 

All  Maximilian's  plans  failed,  however.  He  failed 
in  Italy,  and  he  failed  in  Gelderland.  Louis  XII. 
also  had  ambitious  designs  in  Italy,  which  were 
thwarted  by  the  opposition  of  Venice.  Common 
interests  drew  Louis  and  Maximilian  together,  and 
after   a   great    deal    of    secret   negotiation,   the    two 

1  Rymer,  xiii.  236-9. 

*  Certain  jewels  were  left  in  pledge  by  Maximilian,  the  jewel 
known  as  "  lo  riche  Fleur  de  Lys  "  being  pledged  for  50,000  crowns, 
L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  440  ;   Rymer,  xiii.  234,  239,  242. 

^  The  treaty  was  confirmed  by  Maximilian  early  in  1508. 


1508]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  367 

princes  agreed  to  abandon  their  mutual  hostilities 
in  favour  of  an  attack  on  Venice.  The  change  was 
fatal  to  Henry's  schemes. 

The  diplomacy  of  Europe  centred  round  the  con- 
ference at  Cambrai  between  Margaret  of  Savoy  and 
the  Cardinal  d'Amboise,  representing  Maximilian 
and  Louis.  Though  English  envoys  attended  the 
conference  at  the  special  invitation  of  Margaret, 
they  were  only  concerned  with  the  state  of  affairs 
on  the  surface  and  knew  nothing  of  the  secret  nego- 
tiations which  were  transforming  the  diplomacy  of 
Europe.  The  question  of  Gelderland,  the  osten- 
sible reason  of  the  conference,  was  indeed  settled 
by  the  appointment  of  the  Kings  of  England,  France, 
and  Scotland  as  arbitrators.  Henry's  instructions 
to  Wingfield,  based  on  the  situation  as  known  to  him, 
were  quite  beside  the  point.  The  absorbing  interest 
of  the  conference  was  the  settlement  of  the  Italian 
question,  in  which  England  was  not  concerned. 

Wingfield  was  urged  to  press  for  the  dissolution 
of  the  alliance  between  the  King  of  France  and 
Ferdinand,  to  try  and  deprive  the  latter  of  the 
regency  of  Castile,  and  obtain  his  exclusion  from 
the  treaties  at  Cambrai.  He  was  to  declare  Henry's 
willingness  to  accept  an  alliance  with  France,  to  be 
strengthened  by  a  marriage  with  a  French  princess.^ 
Henry  was  obviously  out  of  touch  with  the  situa- 
tion.2  On  December  10,  1508,  the  formation  of  the 
League  of  Cambrai  joined  France  and  Maximilian 
in  common  hostility  to  Venice,  and  a  little  later  the 
Pope  and  Ferdinand  were  also  admitted  into  the 
League.     It  was  a  bitter  disappointment  to  Henry ; 

^  The  probable  date  of  these  instructions  was  Nov.  1508.  • 

-  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  426-52,  ii.  365-7  ;  Berg.,  Spanish  Cal., 
No.  600. 


368  HENRY    VII  [1509 

instead  of  being  a  member  of  a  coalition  designed 
to  attack  Ferdinand,  he  found  himself  almost  the 
only  power  not  included  in  the  League. 

But  Henry  was  not  the  man  to  acquiesce  in  even 
momentary  exclusion  and  isolation.  In  spite  of  his 
increasing  physical  weakness,  the  king  patiently  set  to 
work  to  rearrange  the  threads  of  his  policy.  For- 
tunately there  was  no  disposition  to  exclude  him 
from  the  League.  He  received  an  invitation  to  join 
it,  but  the  prospect  of  dismembering  the  republic  of 
Venice,  which  had  led  the  powers  of  Europe  to  drop 
mutual  animosities,  had  no  lure  for  him. 

The  threatened  republic  appealed  urgently  to  him 
for  help.  In  January  1508-9,  they  had  found  out 
about  the  League  of  Cambrai.  Their  consul  in  Lon- 
don was  directed  to  approach  Pietro  Carmelianus, 
Henry's  Latin  secretary,  and  try  and  avail  himself 
of  his  favour  with  the  king,  "  who  had  always  loved 
the  state  as  his  special  friends."  In  this  crisis  of 
their  fortunes  no  effort  was  to  be  spared  to  attach 
Henry  to  their  side.  The  envoy  was  to  point  out 
that  France  meditated  the  ruin  of  Italy,  hoped  to 
obtain  the  imperial  crown  for  Louis,  and  the  chair 
of  St.  Peter  for  the  Cardinal  of  Rouen.  They  were 
persuaded  that  Henry  would  interfere  to  save  them, 
"  both  of  his  goodness  and  because  of  the  safety  of 
the  whole  Christian  world."  On  30th  January  an 
ambassador  was  sent  to  England  charged  with  the 
duty  of  informing  Henry  of  the  "  deep  rooted  and 
detestable  greediness  "  of  the  King  of  France,  and 
of  his  ambition  to  become  "  monarch  of  the  universe  " 
and  of  his  other  "  unbecoming  and  immoderate 
cravings."  Henry  and  Venice  both  realised  that 
the  only  hopeful  line  of  policy  was  an  attempt  to 
detach    Maximilian    from    his    recent    alliance    with 


1509]  LAST    YEARS  :    1503-1509  369 

France.  Maximilian's  conduct  had  been  thoroughly 
characteristic.  His  recent  alliance  with  Henry  and  a 
three  years'  truce  with  Venice  he  had  broken  without 
scruple,  to  pursue  one  of  those  ambitious  dreams 
which  had  been  the  bane  of  his  life. 

By  the  time  the  Venetian  ambassador  reached 
London  in  March,  Henry  was  too  ill  to  give  him  an 
audience,  though  he  expressed  his  good  intentions 
towards  the  republic.  He  had  already  WTitten  to 
Maximilian  to  try  and  adjust  his  quarrel  with  Venice. 
A  short  time  afterwards  the  King  of  France  declared 
war  against  Venice,  and  the  French  and  Papal  forces 
attacked  its  territory,  but  Henry  died  before  this 
news  reached  him.^ 

Henry's  final  communications  with  Ferdinand  in 
the  last  months  of  his  life  remain  to  be  noticed. 
After  the  failure  of  his  attempt  to  isolate  Spain, 
there  was  a  return  to  the  friendly  tone  character- 
istic of  their  former  relations. 

In  January  and  February  1509  Henry  wrote  to 
John  Stile,  his  envoy  in  Spain,  directing  him  to 
inform  Ferdinand  that  the  long-delayed  maniage 
should  soon  take  place,  and  Ferdinand  replied  that 
he  would  send  an  ambassador  with  powers  to  settle 
the  question  of  the  dowry.  Stile  reported  that 
great  efforts  were  being  made,  however,  to  detach 
the  King  of  Spain  from  the  English  alliance. 
Ayala  said  that  he  used  all  his  influence  in  favour 
of  England,  and  that  he  was  not  carried  away  by 
the  anti-English  party  in  Spain.  Stile,  however, 
admitted  frankly  enough  that  the  Spaniards  were 
"  wondrous  close,  subtle,  and  crafty  far  passing  his 
understanding,"  and  evidently  distrusted  Ayala. 
Stile's  position  seems  to  have  been  very  uncomfortable, 

1  Brown,  Ven.  Col.,  i.  Nos.  929,  936,  939,  940. 

2   A 


370  HENRY    VII  [1609 

and  he  wrote  that  he  would  have  had  as  good  cheer 
and  company  as  ambassador  to  the  Turks  or  to 
Barbary  as  he  had  there.  The  upshot  of  it  all  was 
that  Ferdinand  agreed  to  forget  his  displeasure  at 
the  betrothal  of  the  Prince  of  Castile  without  his 
consent  on  condition  the  marriage  between  Henry 
and  Katherine  was  immediately  concluded.  He 
declared  that  he  and  the  King  of  England  had  been 
and  were  now  great  brothers  and  friends.  This 
last  despatch,  which  Henry  never  lived  to  read, 
dealt  as  usual  with  the  time-worn  topics  of  the  dowry 
and  the  marriage  portion.  The  long  negotiations 
between  Henry  and  Ferdinand  ended  on  a  familiar 
note.^ 

Rumours  of  Henry's  illness  had  been  carried  all 
over  Europe  in  the  spring  of  1509.  His  malady, 
which  was  a  form  of  consumption,  took  a  turn  for 
the  worse  in  March.  "  Perceiving  that  death  was 
not  far  off  tarrying,"  a  general  pardon  was  proclaimed 
to  all  who  had  offended  against  the  king's  law^s, 
thieves  and  murderers  alone  being  excepted.-  By 
the  end  of  the  month  the  king  was  in  great  danger. 
On  the  14th  of  April  he  was  reported  to  be  in  extremis, 
and  on  the  21st  of  April,  "  so  consumed  wdth  his  long 
malady,  that  nature  could  no  longer  systeyne  his 
lyfe,"  Henry  VII.  died  at  Richmond  in  the  fifty- 
third  year  of  his  age.^ 

His  will,  which  w^as  dated  March  30,  1509,  is  of 
considerable  interest.  It  breathes  the  spirit  of  a 
genuine  and  simple   piety.     He  expressed   liis   wish 

1  Mem.  of  Hen.  VII.  (Rolls  Ser.),  pp.  431-448. 

2  Fisher,  Sermon  on  Death  of  Heti.  VII.  (Early  Eng.  Text  Soc, 
xxvii.),  271-2. 

'  Fisher  gives  an  account  of  the  king's  last  painful  days,  when 
"  for  the  space  of  xxvii  houres  ...  he  laye  continually  abiding  the 
sharpo  assautes  of  deth." 


1509]  LAST    YEARS:    1503-1509  371 

to  be  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey,  "  the  common 
sepulchre  of  the  kings  of  this  realm,"  in  the  chapel 
that  he  had  begun  to  build  anew,  where  daily  masses 
were  to  be  said  for  his  soul  and  the  souls  of  his  wife 
and  ancestors.  He  left  £5000  to  finish  the  chapel 
and  provide  for  the  carving  of  the  royal  arms  and 
badges  on  windows,  walls,  doors,  arches,  and  vaults. 
He  directed  that  his  funeral  should  be  carried  out 
"  with  special  respect  and  consideration  to  the 
laude  and  praising  of  God,  the  welthe  of  our  Soule 
and  somewhat  to  our  dignitie  Royal,  eviting  alwaies 
dampnable  pompe  and  oteragious  superfluities." 
Money  was  left  to  provide  for  ten  thousand  masses 
to  be  said  for  the  king's  soul  within  one  month  after 
his  death.  £2000  was  to  be  distributed  to  the  poor, 
the  sick,  and  to  the  prisoners,  who  were  to  be  asked 
to  offer  prayers  for  the  king's  soul,  "  so  that  oure 
Soule  may  fele  that  as  thei  loved  us  in  our  life,  soo 
thei  may  remember  us  after  our  deceasse."  Pro- 
vision was  made  for  payment  of  the  king's  debts 
and  for  the  satisfaction  of  wrongs  done  by  the  king 
or  by  his  order.  ^  Bequests  were  made  for  founding 
chantries  and  almshouses,  hospitals  at  York  and 
Coventry,  for  the  repair  of  highways  and  bridges, 
and  for  various  "  dedes  of  merite,  almose,  pitie,  and 
charite."  The  king's  signature  was  dated  the  10th 
of  April,  ten  days  before  his  death,- 

1  The  names  of  Empson  and  Dudley  appear  in  the  list  of  those 
who  were  to  give  satisfaction  with  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
the  bishops  of  London,  Winchester,  and  Gloucester,  and  other 
members  of  the  king's  council. 

-  Will  of  Henry  VII.  (ed.  Astle).  The  indentures  between  the 
king  and  the  Abbot  of  Westminster  are  in  a  book  bound  in  crimson 
velvet  in  the  Harleian  Library,  No.  1498.  See  description  of 
binding  (Astle,  Will,  Appendix  I.).  There  are  five  seals  with  the 
king's  ani\s,  illuminated  portraits,  &c. 


372  HENRY    VII  [1609 

The  pomp  and  ceremony  with  which  the  king  had 
surrounded  his  state  appearances  lent  dignity  to  his 
funeral.^  On  Tuesday,  May  8th,  the  king's  body 
was  brought  from  Richmond  to  London,  and  in  the 
evening  a  stately  procession,  lit  with  torches  innu- 
merable, passed  slowly  through  the  streets  of  the 
capital  to  St.  Paul's.  The  king's  coffin  lay  under  a 
golden  canopy  on  a  chariot  drawTi  by  seven  horses, 
their  black  velvet  trappings  emblazoned  with  the 
arms  of  England.  The  coffin  was  covered  by  an 
effigy  of  the  late  king,  cro\\Tied  and  in  Parliament 
robes,  and  bearing  the  sceptre  and  orb  ;  at  the  head 
and  foot  sat  two  mourners.  The  king's  courser,  led 
by  Sir  Thomas  Brandon,  followed  his  dead  master. 
"  A  noble  knight,  the  mourner,"  bore  the  king's 
standard  behind  the  coffin.  Then  followed  the  Duke 
of  Buckingham,  the  temporal  lords  and  barons  and 
the  abbots  and  bishops  on  horseback,  judges  in  their 
robes,  and  a  long  procession  of  monks  and  friars, 
singing  dirges  as  they  walked.  The  king's  steel 
helmet  with  its  golden  cro^vn  was  borne  by  a  Welsh 
knight.  Sir  Edward  Howard  wore  his  armour  and 
bore  his  battle-axe  reversed,  and  the  caps  and 
swords  sent  by  three  Popes  were  borne  by  esquires. 
WTien  the  cathedral  was  reached,  the  coffin  was 
borne  up  through  the  nave  by  fom-teen  men  of  the 
king's  guard,  "  because  of  its  great  weight,"  and  lay 
that  night  before  the  high  altar  of  the  cathedral  under 
"  a  goodlie  curious  Light  of  Nine  Branches,"  On 
the  following  morning,  after  tliree  masses  and  a 
sermon  by  John  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester,-  the 
king's  body  was  taken  in  procession  to  Westminster. 

^  A  full  account  is  given  by  the  Herald.     Leland,  Collectanea,  iv. 
303-9.     See  also  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VIII.,  i.  App.,  No.  5735. 
*  Early  English  Text  Society,  xxvii.,  1876,  pp.  268-88. 


Emery  Walker.  Photo 
KING   HENRY   VII 
From  the  full-length  effigy  on  his  tomb  in  Westminster  Abbey 


1509]  LAST    YEARS:    1503-1509  373 

That  night  the  dead    king   lay  there    in    state,  the 
gloom   of   the   abbey   being   pierced   by   a   space   of 
light  round  the  coffin,  near  which  stood  "  the  most 
costly   and    curious    light    possibly   to    be   made   by 
man's  hand,  which  was  of  twelve  principal  standards." 
On  the  morrow  (Thursday,  10th  May)  the  late  king's 
armour,    his   helmet,   shield,   and   sword  were   given 
as  offerings.     Even  his  courser  was  ridden  up  through 
the  abbey  and  offered  at  the  altar.     The  Duke  of 
Buckingham  and  the  other  nobles  laid  palls  on  the 
bier,  "  in  token  of  their  homage,  which  they  of  dutie 
ought  to  do  unto  the  king."     When  the  effigy  and 
the   palls  were  removed,   the  wooden   shell   was  re- 
vealed  covered   with   black   velvet   adorned   with   a 
huge  white  cross.     Within  was  a  leaden  coffin  bear- 
ing the  inscription,   "  Hie  jacet  Rex  Henricus  Sep- 
timus."    The  coffin  was  laid  in  the  vault  by  the  side 
of   the    queen's.      The    absolution   was    pronounced, 
earth  was  thrown  upon  the  coffin  by  the  archbishop ; 
the  lord   treasurer,  lord  steward,  and   other   officers 
of  state  broke  their  staves  and  threw  them  into  the 
vault,  the  heralds  took  off   their  tabards,  "  cr>inge 
lamentably  in    French,  '  The  noble  King  Henry  the 
Seaventh  is  deade. '  "     A  moment   later  the  shouts 
of   the  heralds  acclaimed  his  successor,   "  God  send 
the  noble  King  Henry  the  Eighth  long  life."     There, 
in  the  centre  of  the  gorgeous  chapel  that  is  a  monu- 
ment to  the  dignity  and  splendour  of  his  proud  race, 
lies  the  dust  of  the  founder  of  the  Tudor  dynasty, 
"  a   king  who  lived   all   his  tyme  in  the  favour  of 
fortune,  in  high  honour,  riches,  and  glory,  and  for 
his  noble  actes  and  prudent  pollecies  worthy  to  be 
registered  in  the  booke  of  fame." 


CHAPTER  X 

PERSONAL  :  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  REIGN 

"  A  DREARY  life  and  a  dreary  reign."  That  is  the 
summary  of  a  modern  sketch  of  King  Henry.  ^  It 
is  a  strange  comment  on  a  life  of  which  the  strange 
vicissitudes  recall  the  fabled  adventures  of  heroes  of 
romance,  and  on  a  reign  that,  beginning  with  the 
achievement  of  a  crown  from  the  hawthorn  bush  on 
Bosworth  field,  saw  the  first  voyages  into  the  New 
World,  and  gathered  the  first  harvest  of  the  Renais- 
sance. Yet  the  comment  is  not  a  novel  one.  It 
follows  the  general  tradition  that  clothes  the  reign 
with  a  pall  of  impenetrable  dulness.  The  cry  is 
that  the  reign  lacks  dramatic  interest,  that  it  is 
a  bleak  interlude  between  the  death  struggles  of 
feudalism  and  the  great  political  and  social  con\ail- 
sions  that  followed.  Historians  one  after  another 
dwell  on  the  importance  of  the  period  and  bewail 
its  dulness  ;  ^  it  is  the  one  thing  apparently  that 
may  legitimately  inspire  their  eloquence.  The  reign 
certainly  suffers  from  the  fact  that  it  came  between 
two  periods  of  violent  catastrophe.  It  was  a  time 
of  experiment  not  yet  confirmed,  of  discovery  not 
yet  verified  ;  and  when  the  curtain  falls  on  Henry 
VII.  there  is  a  feeling  that  it  is  but  a  prelude  to  a 

1  A.  D.  Innes,  Twelve  Tudor  Statesmen. 

-  Bishop  Stubbs,  for  instance,  who  in  a  few  vivid  sentences  has 

summed  up  the  great  developments  of  the  reign,  goes  on  to  comment 

on  its  failure  to  be  interesting.     Stubbs,  Lectures  on  Mediasval  and 

Modem  History,  pp.  384-9. 

374 


1485-1509]    DIPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN    375 

much  more  stirring  play.  But  the  reign  does  not 
lack  the  interest  of  a  gallant  and  successful  struggle 
against  odds  that  at  first  seemed  overwhelming.  It 
is  rich,  too,  in  the  promise  of  great  beginnings,  the 
end  of  which  still  hes  out  of  sight.  The  reproach  of 
dulness  ought  not  to  cloud  the  reign  that  made  the 
glories  of  Elizabethan  England  possible. 

Yet,  after  all,  it  is  easy  to  explain  this  lack  of 
interest.  There  is  a  strange  absence  of  detailed 
contemporary  evidence.^  The  half-seen  figures  of 
Henry  and  his  ministers  seem  to  struggle  dimly  in 
a  twilight  world  of  their  own,  and  to  be  separated 
by  more  than  a  generation  from  the  robust  figures 
of  their  descendants,  who  play  their  parts  on  a 
well-lighted  stage.  Even  the  fact  that  Henry  had 
Bacon  for  his  biographer  does  not  entirely  atone  for 
the  lack  of  the  intimate,  revealing  details  of  the 
king's  character.  A  grey  mist  still  lies  between  him 
and  us  ;  form  but  not  colour  has  come  down  to  us. 
\Vhat  we  know,  too,  of  the  people  of  the  period  is 
not  arresting.  The  picture  lacks  those  gallant  and 
heroic  figures  that  loom  larger  than  life  on  the  canvas 
of  history.  No  amount  of  special  pleading  can  make 
Henry  VII.  a  hero  of  romance  ;  his  ministers  were 
all  prosaic  figures.  Practical  common  sense  seems 
to  be  their  dominant  characteristic.  Morton,  Fox, 
and  Bray  were  men  of  sound  ability,  but  there  was 
no  brilliance,  no  flash  of  genius,  to  relieve  their 
humdrum  usefulness.  With  Empson  and  Dudley  we 
get  a  note  of  more  striking  colour,  but  their  \'illainy 
took  the  unromantic  form  of  sordid  chicanery,  base 
alike  in  method   and  motive.     Even  the  one  great 

1  The  invention  of  the  printing  press  may  have  had  some  influence 
on  this,  and  the  age  of  monkish  chroniclers  was  past.  Stubbs, 
op.  cit.,  p.  386. 


376  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

crime  of  the  reign — the  execution  of  Warwick — is 
not  of  a  character  to  arouse  strong  feeUng,  and  lacks 
the  sinister  interest  of  a  personal  motive.  Even  the 
romantic  career  of  the  "  White  Rose  "  is  touched 
with  the  prevalent  absence  of  heroism.  Perkin 
Warbeck's  gallant  figure  was  the  mask  of  an  ignoble 
spirit,  tainted  with  the  baseness  of  personal  cow- 
ardice. Neither  the  king's  mother  nor  the  queen  are 
particularly  interesting.^  The  ability  of  the  former 
was  directed  in  uninteresting  channels,  and  the  queen 
had  beauty,  grace,  and  piety,  but  little  character. 

In  spite  of  the  tradition  of  repellent  hardness  that 
clings  round  it,  the  study  of  Henry's  strange  com- 
plex character  is  curiously  interesting.  The  portrait 
that  Bacon  drew  still  holds  the  field,-  and  no  attempt 
to  sketch  the  king's  character  can  stand  without 
borrowing  from  his  nobly  worded  study  of  this 
"  Solomon  of  England,"  a  study  ''  which  nothing 
extenuates  but  sets  down  naught  in  malice,"  of  a 
man  who,  whether  he  was  great  or  small,  was  at  all 
events  the  mainspring  and  origin  of  the  whole  policy 
of  the  reign.  It  is  the  picture  of  the  politic  king  that 
Bacon  draws  for  us  A\'ith  his  master  hand — remote 
from  human  feelings,  guiltless  of  love  or  hatred, 
without  pity  and  without  resentment,  without  pas- 
sion and  Tvithout  weakness.  No  one  can  deny  that 
it  is  a  striking  figure,  grey,  relentless,  and  inhuman, 
that  looms  across  the  intervening  centuries.  But  at 
the  risk  of  blurring  this  clear  outline,  the  evidence 
inaccessible  to  Bacon  must  be  remembered.  The 
lines  of  his  splendid  sketch  must  be  modified.  The 
king  was  more  human  than  he  has  been  portrayed, 
less  aloof,  less  mysterious,  less  impressive,  perhaps. 
It  is  like  an  attempt  to  replace  a  magnificent  paint- 

1  See  below,  pp.  385-8.  -  Bacon,  op  cit.,  pp.  237-45. 


1485-1509]    BIPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN     377 

ing  by  a  faithful   photograph,  a   sacrifice  of  art  to 
truth." 

The  dark,  stern,  secret  figure  Bacon  has  made  us 
famihar  with  had  a  less  sinister  side  which  is  re- 
vealed to  us  by  contemporaries.  Many  of  the 
qualities  for  which  they  praised  the  king,  and  which 
seem  most  alien  to  Bacon's  account,  have  the  supj^ort 
of  hard  fact.  He  was  neither  harsh  nor  unkind. 
Considering  how  few  are  the  original  records  that 
sur\ive,  the  amount  of  evidence  that  exists  to 
prove  this  is  remarkable.  Royal  letters,  letters 
patent,  and  royal  accounts  bring  before  us  unques- 
tionable proof  of  his  generosity  and  benevolence. 
In  gratitude  to  those  who  had  helped  him  or  any 
of  his  house  he  is  never  wanting ;  ^  he  was  com- 
passionate to  \'ictims  of  accident,  redeemed  debtors 
from  prison,  undertook  the  support  of  poor  children. 
He  paid  the  debts  of  traitors,  and  pensioned  those 
dependent  on  them.  He  raised  a  tomb  to  King 
Richard's  memory  and  supported  the  widows  of  Lord 
Fitz  Walter  and  of  Perkin  Warbeck.  Bacon's  theory 
that  he  had  an  ineradicable  hatred  of  the  House  of 
York  is  disproved  by  his  generous  treatment  of 
Northumberland,  Surrey,  and  a  crowd  of  lesser  men. 
The  old  picture  of  the  harsh  and  sinister  despot  gives 
way  to  that  of  a  king  who  was  both  kindly  and  con- 
siderate. He  admitted  liis  subjects  to  intimate  per- 
sonal relations,  and  gave  ear  to  their  petitions.  To 
take  at  random  from  a  month  of  his  life  :  he  dealt 
with  the  woes  of  a  disappointed  lover,  deceived  by 
the  '"  nygromancer,"  who  had  promised  to  help  him 
to  the  woman  he  desired,   he    gave    his    protection 

^  See  Materials,  passim.  Lord  Nevill's  young  son  was  brought 
up  at  court.  His  horse,  bridle,  and  saddle,  and  a  "  Kendall  cote  for 
littell  Nevil "  were  paid  for  out  of  the  Privy  Purse.  Excerpta 
Hiatorica,  p.  122. 


378  HENRY    VII  [U85-1509 

to  the  wife  of  a  lunatic,  and  interfered  to  protect  a 
nun  who  had  suffered  ill-usage.^  He  did  not  forget  his 
schoolmaster  or  the  son  of  his  old  nurse.  We  find  him 
giving £l  "to  one  that  had  his  hand  smyten  off,"  6s.  8d. 
"  to  one  that  was  hurt  with  a  gunne,"  and  so  forth. 

He  was  not  difficult  to  approach,  and  as  he  jour- 
neyed through  his  kingdom  came  into  contact  with 
many  of  his  poorer  subjects.  Thus  we  hear  of  him 
drinking  ale  in  a  farmer's  house,  stopping  to  watch 
the  reapers  in  a  field  and  giving  them  a  tip  of  2s,, 
giving  3s.  4d.  to  a  woman  who  approached  him  as 
he  rode  to  Canterbury  to  give  him  "  a  neste  of 
leverets."  It  is  a  homely  picture  which  shows  the 
king  in  a  less  forbidding  light.  It  was  also  his  custom 
and  that  of  the  queen  to  accept  graciously  a  variety 
of  small  offerings  brought  to  them  by  their  subjects, 
giving  them  small  rewards.  The  poor  woman  who 
brought  a  present  of  "  butter  and  chekins,"  and  the 
girl  who  brought  almond  butter  (for  use  on  Good 
Friday,  when  ordinary  butter  was  forbidden),  received 
small  gratuities.  "  A  fool  for  bringing  a  carp  " 
was  paid  12d.,  and  a  woman  who  brought  two  glasses 
of  water  to  the  king  on  one  of  his  rides  was  given 
five  shillings.  Among  the  innumerable  offerings 
were  apples  and  oranges,  cherries  and  strawberries. 
"  posies  of  flowers,"  venison,  rabbits,  quails,  wood- 
cocks, cock-pheasants,  tripe,  "  puddinges,"  "  aqua 
vite,"  malmsey  wine,  a  fresh  sturgeon,  a  nightingale, 
a  pomander  box,  a  pair  of  clavicords,  rose-water,  and 
cocks  for  fighting  at  Shrove  tide.^ 

Again,  the  tradition  of  the  king's  ascetic  aloofness 

1  Campbell,  Materials  for  Reigns  of  Rich.  III.  and  Henry  VII.,  i. 
251,  310. 

*  Excerpta  Hiatorica,  passim ;  Privy  Purse  Expenses  of  Elizabeth 
of  York  (ed.  Nicolas). 


1485-1609]    IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN     379 

has  to  give  way  before  the  records  of  his  court.  Con- 
temporary descriptions  have  been  preserved  of  many 
of  the  great  ceremonies  of  the  reign,  the  king's  coro- 
nation, the  coronation  of  EHzabeth,  the  christening 
of  Prince  Arthur,  the  marriages  of  Arthur  and  Mar- 
garet, the  creation  of  Prince  Henry  as  Duke  of  York, 
the  funerals  of  Arthur  and  EHzabeth,  and  of  the 
king  himself.^  From  them  all  we  get  the  same  im- 
pression of  great  splendour  and  dignity,  of  stately 
symbolism  and  ecclesiastical  ritual.  The  Tower  of 
London  was  the  royal  palace  on  many  of  these 
ceremonial  occasions.  Westminster  Abbey  was  the 
scene  of  coronations,  and  St.  Paul's  of  national 
thanksgi\'ing  when  the  king  appeared  in  triumph 
to  give  thanks  for  victory.  The  Thames  plays  its 
part  in  many  of  the  pageants ;  with  its  barges 
furnished  with  "  baners  and  stremers  of  silk  richly 
besene  "  and  its  thousands  of  swans.  ^ 

The  king's  private  account  book,  Elizabeth's  privy 
purse  expenses,  and  the  Roll  of  the  Great  Ward- 
robe take  us  behind  the  scenes  and  show  us  the 
material  upon  which  the  king  relied  for  his  effects. 
The  king  himself  made  a  magnificent  figure  at  all  the 
great  ceremonies  of  the  reign,  and  seems  to  have  had 
a  pronounced  taste  for  gorgeous  clothing,  and  above 
all  for  jewels,  on  which,  between  1491  and  1505,  he 
spent   over   £100,000. ^     Even   on   comparatively   in- 

1  Rutland  MSS.  ;  Leland,  Collectanea. 

*  Italian  Relation.  The  background  of  it  all  was  the  capital, 
built  of  brick  and  timber,  which  impressed  foreign  observers  with 
its  wealth,  abounding  with  "  every  article  of  luxiuy  and  with  a 
great  quantity  of  wrought  silver."  There  were  fifty-two  goldsmiths' 
shops  in  the  Strand  alone.     Ibid.,  pp.  42-4. 

^  On  January  4,  1504,  the  sum  of  £30,000  was  paid  out  of  the 
Privy  Purse  "  for  divers  precious  stones  from  beyond  the  see  " 
purchased  by  the  king.     Excerpta  Hiatorica,  p.  131. 


380  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

formal  occasions  Henry  was  richly  dressed.  The 
Venetian  ambassador  found  him  at  Woodstock 
dressed  in  a  violet  gown  lined  with  cloth  of  gold,  his 
collar  enriched  with  many  jewels,  and  his  cap  with 
"  a  large  diamond  and  a  most  beautiful  pearl."  ^ 
He  led  his  army  into  France  in  a  magnificent  suit  of 
armour,  the  helmet  gleaming  with  pearls  and  jewels 
bought  specially  for  it  from  the  Lombard  merchants. 
The  nobles  aped  the  king's  tastes,  and  glittered 
with  goldsmith's  work  and  with  "goodly  chaines  of 
fine  gold."  On  one  occasion  the  Duke  of  Bucking- 
ham wore  a  gown  of  needlework  set  upon  cloth  of 
tissue  and  furred  with  sable,  valued  at  £1500,  and 
the  gold  trimming  alone  of  Sir  Nicholas  Vaux's 
gown  was  worth  £1000,-  The  king  encouraged  all 
this,  and  often  gave  pieces  of  rich  silk  or  velvet  to 
his  nobles,  such  as  "  forty-one  yards  of  riche  satin 
to  make  the  Earl  of  Oxford  a  gowTie,"  ^  and  honoured 
with  his  presence  the  weddings  of  many  members 
of  his  court. ^ 

The  Ordinances  of  the  Household  (1494)  reveal 
the  ordinary  surroundings  of  Henry's  daily  life.^ 
The  ceremonial  of  the  court  was  designed  to  set 
the  king  in  a  niche  apart,  invested  \%ith  every  cir- 
cumstance   of    pomp    and    dignity.     The    directions 

^  Brown,  Cal.  of  Venetian  Papers,  i.,  No.  754.  The  privy  purse 
accounts  contain  amusing  references  to  the  details  of  Henry's 
costumes.  Thus,  "an  estrych  (?  ostrich)  skynne  for  a  stomacher  " 
(Excerpta  Historica,  p.  95),  pjnine  cases  8s.,  the  king's  hatt  bande 
of  silke  43.,  to  a  barber  that  did  shave  the  king  4s. 

^  Italian  ReL,  Note,  p.  73;  Stow,  Annates,  484.  Sir  Thomas 
Brandon  wore  at  Katherine's  wedding  a  chain  valued  at  £1400. 

*  Excerpta  Historica  ;  Roll  of  Great  Wardrobe,  Materials,  ii.  1-29, 
175-6. 

*  A  list  of  the  weddmgs  which  Henry  attended  can  be  found  in 
Coll.  Top.  and  Gen.,  i.  21,  22. 

*  Soc.  of  Antiquaries  Proc. 


1485-1509]    BIPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN     381 

are  much  more  minute  than  those  for  the  household  of 
Edward  IV.,  and  it  is  not  fanciful  to  see  in  the  increas- 
ing strictness  of  etiquette  evidence  of  studied  design.' 
The  king  made  his  public  appearances  with  great 
pomp  and  under  a  cloth  of  estate.  The  furniture 
and  decoration  of  the  royal  palaces  became  increas- 
ingly luxurious.  The  descriptions  of  the  hangings  of 
rich  tapestry  and  cloth  of  gold,  of  carpets  and  cushions 
embroidered  \%'ith  Tudor  devices,  of  cupboards  of 
rich  gold  plate,  and  of  the  elaborate  furnishing  of  the 
royal  bedchambers  show  a  marked  advance.-  The 
king  kept  a  splendid  table,  at  which  seven  or  eight 
hundred  people  dined  daily. ^  The  menu  at  the 
state  banquets  usually  included  certain  popular  dishes, 
shields  of  brawn  in  armour,  venison,  pheasants, 
swans,  peacocks  (appearing  in  the  glory  of  feathers 
and  tail),  capons,  "  crane  with  cretney,"  "  lamprey 
in  galantine,"  "  pike  in  Lat^^ller  sauce,"  "  perche  in 
jellie  dipt,"  snipes,  quails,  larks,  partridges,  and 
"  conies  of  high  grece."  The  sweets  included  cus- 
tards, '•  marchpayne  royal,  and  tarte  poleyne."  Each 
course  was  finished  by  a  Sotelte,  an  elaborate  device 
in  pastry  representing  allegorical  figures.* 

The  splendour  of  Henry's  coui't  had  more  than 
a  personal   significance.     It  was  designed  to  invest 

^  Ex£ict  rules,  for  instance,  are  laid  down  as  to  the  method  of 
"  ser\'ing  the  king  with  spice  (gingerbread,  cakes,  dried  fruit,  &c., 
preicticaUy  dessert)  and  wine.  They  were  handed  by  the  nobleman 
of  the  highest  rank  present,  while  the  Archbishop  stood  on  the 
king's  right  hand  and  took  spice  and  wine  in  his  turn  "when  the 
king  made  liim  a  becke."  The  regulations  for  making  the  king's 
bed  were  equally  minute. 

-  See  the  account  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  elaborate  bed-chamber. 
Leland,  Collectanea. 

^  "  His  Majesty,"  wrote  the  ItaUan  visitor,  "  himself  spends 
£14,000  annually  upon  his  table."     Italian  Relation,  p.  47. 

*  Rutland  Papers,  p.  119. 


382  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

the  new  dynasty  with  the  glamour  of  royal  state 
and  dignity,  to  catch  the  eye  of  Europe  and  suggest 
the  strength  of  vast  wealth.  It  was  no  accident 
when  a  newly-arrived  ambassador  or  envoy  found 
the  court  in  full  dress,  everything  marvellously  well 
ordered  and  served,  and  the  queen  jewelled  and  sur- 
rounded by  magnificently  apparelled  ladies.^  Henry 
fully  realised  the  effect  of  the  trappings  of  royalty  on 
the  popular  mind,  and  took  care  not  to  destroy  his 
growing  prestige  by  impromptu  appearances  in 
public.  His  state  appearances  were  calculated  to 
impress  the  minds  of  spectators,  and  be  magnified 
by  rumour  in  the  country.  His  long  progresses 
through  the  disturbed  parts  of  England  had  the 
same  end  in  view.^ 

Henry  set  the  example  of  royal  magnificence  that 
became  characteristic  of  the  Tudor  sovereigns,  reign- 
ing at  a  period  when  royalty  reached  its  climax  in 
England.  This  outward  pomp  did  much  to  foster 
the  growing  reverence  for  royalty,  to  set  it  on  a 
pinnacle  far  above  the  subject,  to  create  the  atmos- 
phere of  devoted  loyalty  to  the  throne  that  found 
its  expression  in  the  Elizabethan  period. 

To  harmonise  with  the  gloomy  colours  he  has 
chosen.  Bacon  denies  to  Henry  any  relaxations. 
"  For  his  pleasures,"  he  says,  "  there  is  no  news  of 
them,"  and,  while  admitting  that  the  court  was  en- 
livened by  "  triumphs  of  justs  and  tourneys  and 
balls  and  masks,"  ^  suggests  that  Henry  was  "rather 
a  princely  and  gentle  spectator  than  seemed  to  be 

1  Loland,  Collectanea,  iv.  242. 

-  Though  he  usually  travelled  in  the  summer,  the  roads  often 
had  to  be  repaired  before  the  royal  retinue  could  proceed. 

2  For  a  vivid  account  of  the  tournaments  to  celebrate  the  creation 
of  Prince  Henry  as  Duke  of  York,  see  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  i.  388- 
404;  CityChron.,  p.  202. 


1485-1509]    IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN     383 

much  delighted."  According  to  Bacon  he  spent  his 
leisure  time  making  "  notes  and  memorials  of  his 
own  hand,  especially  touching  persons,  as  whom  to 
employ,  whom  to  reward,  whom  to  inquire  of,  whom 
to  beware  of,  what  were  the  dependencies,  what  the 
factions,  and  the  like,  keeping,  as  it  were,  a  journal 
of  his  own  thoughts,"  but  though  this  fits  in  aptly 
with  Bacon's  view  of  Henry's  character,  there  are 
other  accounts  of  the  way  in  which  the  king  spent 
his  leisure  which  are  a  great  contrast  to  this  theory 
of  gloomy  seclusion. 

Henry  was  an  ardent  sportsman,  and  took  every 
opportunity  of  getting  away  from  the  cares  of  state 
for  a  few  weeks'  hunting  in  the  royal  forests.  He 
hunted  in  the  New  Forest,  at  Enfield,  Waltham,  and 
Woodstock,  as  well  as  at  Windsor.^  He  jousted,  shot 
at  the  butts,  played  tennis,  dice,  cards,"  and  "  chequer 
board,"  was  interested  in  bull-baiting,  bear-baiting, 
and  cock-fighting.  Besides  splendid  tournaments, 
banquets,  and  "  goodly  disguisings,"  we  hear  of 
"  plays  in  the  White  Hall,"  Twelfth  Night  processions, 
and  the  good  sport  provided  by  the  "  Abbot  of  Mis- 
rule," when  special  efforts  were  made  "  to  cause  the 
king  to  laugh."  Morrice  dancers  and  tumblers, 
conjurers,  little  dancing  girls,  and  rope  walkers 
vied  with  "  a  Spaniard  that  played  the  fool  "  (and 
received  £2  !)  and  "  a  felow  who  distinguished  himself 
by  eating  of  coales."  His  idle  hours  were  enlivened 
by  the  wit  of  one  or  another  of  a  troop  of  court 
jesters,  Scot  and  Dick  "  the  master  fools,"  Peche 
the    fool,    Dego    the    Spanish    jester,    the    "  foolyshe 

^  One  autiunn  a  train  of  ambassadors  had  to  follow  him  about 
from  one  forest  to  another. 

-  The  Privy  Purse  expenses  give  the  record  of  his  losses.  "  My 
Lord  of  York  ' '  played  dice  in  his  very  early  years. 


384  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

Due  of  Lancastre,"  and  others.^  Henry  certainly 
had  a  considerable  sense  of  humour  and  a  ready  wit, 
sardonic  and  ironical  though  it  may  have  been. 
Monstrosities  of  one  kind  or  another  seem  to  have 
had  a  special  interest  for  the  king — "  the  grete 
Walshe  child,"  "  the  littell  Scottisman,"  the  "  grete 
woman  of  Flanders,"  and  so  on.  The  king  also  had 
a  collection  of  wild  animals  to  which  he  occasionally 
added.  The  famous  lions  and  leopards  were  kept 
at  the  Tower.  2 

Like  most  Celts,  Henry  was  very  musical,  and 
never  travelled  without  taking  in  his  train  some  of 
his  minstrels,  trumpeters,  harpists,  or  pipers.  The 
queen  and  the  princesses  also  kept  their  bands  of 
musicians.  On  all  his  progresses  Henry  was  received 
with  music,  and  had  many  opportunities  of  enjoying 
and  paying  for  "  incidental  music  "  of  the  most  varied 
kind.  On  one  occasion  the  king  gave  £l  "  for  a 
child  that  plays  upon  the  recorders  "  ;  another  time 
"  the  Waytes  "  received  10s.,  William  Newark  was 
given  £l  for  making  a  song,  and  children  singing  in 
the  garden  at  Canterbury  received  3s.  4d.  Harpists, 
hornists,  violinists,  organists,  and  trumpeters  all 
received  gratuities.  The  royal  children  were  all 
musical,  and  there  are  many  entries  of  sums  spent 
on  instruments  for  them. 

Henry  was  not  without  a  touch  of  Celtic  romance 
and  imagination.  He  was  proud  of  his  Welsh  an- 
cestry and  his  mythical  descent  from  the  old  kings 
of  Britain.  The  red  dragon  of  Cadwallader  flaunted 
on  the  royal  banner.     His  first-born  son  was  given 

^  Excerpta  Historica,  passim.  A  jester  even  went  with  the  king 
on  liis  journey  to  France. 

*  One  accident  is  recorded,  a  man  dying  from  the  bite  of  one  of 
the  king's  hons. 


1485-1509]    IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN     385 

the  name  of  the  traditional  hero  of  Britain,  and  was 
born  in  the  ancient  city  of  Winchester,  the  scene 
of  some  of  Arthur's  exploits.  Celtic  clanship  made 
the  king  mindful  of  the  Ap  Thomases  and  Ap  Rhyses 
who  had  supported  him,  reward  the  Welsh  rhymers, 
remember  St.  David's  day,  and  so  on  Many  details 
of  the  king's  surroundings  reveal  his  fondness  for 
symbolism.  The  Tudor  colours  of  white  and  green 
appeared  everywhere,  the  Tudor  arms  and  the  red 
and  white  Tudor  rose  on  everything  from  altar  vest- 
ments to  cushions  and  the  king's  portraits.  The 
Tudor  device  of  a  crown  in  a  hawthorn  bush  recalled 
the  coronation  on  Bosworth  Field. 

Too  little  has  often  been  said  on  the  king's  attempt 
to  spread  an  air  of  culture  and  refinement  about  his 
court.  ^  He  gave  his  patronage  to  literature  and 
the  arts,  rewarded  poets  and  ballad-makers,  bought 
rare  books,  encouraged  printing,  and  raised  for  him- 
self a  lasting  monument  of  stone.  He  shared  the 
spirit  of  adventure  and  discovery,  kept  an  alchemist 
at  work  within  the  Tower,  and  rewarded  a  man  who 
made  gunpowder."^  Thus  the  records  prove  that  the 
old  idea  of  Henry  as  the  penurious  and  ascetic  king 
must  be  abandoned.  He  was  no  sinister,  savage 
despot,  with  no  mind  above  the  tortuous  tricks  of 
a  suspicious  tyranny,  but  a  gracious,  liberal-minded 
monarch,  with  a  marked  taste  for  splendour  and 
pageantry,  a  more  or  less  conscious  imitator  of  the 
methods  of  the  Italian  despots. 

Henry's  relations  with  his  family  have  given  rise 
to  some  discussion,  and  here,  too,  Bacon's  view  must 
be  qualified.  "The  domestic  history  of  his  more 
famous  son  is  not  more  thoroughly  repulsive,"  writes 

^  See  above,  pp.  311-316.  *  Excerpta  Historica,  passim. 

2  B 


386  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

one  great  authority.^  The  theory  to  which  Bacon  has 
lent  the  support  of  his  great  name,  that  Henry  treated 
his  wife  badly  and  her  mother  worse,  long  held  the 
field, 2  but  is  now  so  discredited  that  it  is  hardly 
worth  dwelling  on.  The  evidence  of  documents  and 
of  contemporary  historians  contradicts  the  absurd 
and  untrue  statements  that  have  been  made.  Henry 
restored  Elizabeth's  mother  "  to  her  fame  as  a 
woman  and  her  dignity  as  a  queen."  ^  She  was 
Prince  Arthur's  only  godmother,  and  was  sometimes 
present  at  court  on  state  occasions.*  The  other 
story — about  Henry's  unkindness  to  his  wife — has 
been  disposed  of  in  the  same  way.  There  is  no  shadow 
of  support  for  the  theory  that  Henry  was  jealous  of 
her  position  as  heiress  of  the  House  of  York.  Eliza- 
beth received  every  possible  mark  of  honour  and 
favour.  All  her  public  appearances  were  surrounded 
with  great  state,  the  Yorkist  colours  of  murrey  and 
blue  were  displayed  in  the  liveries  of  her  attendants, 
and  the  white  rose  of  York  was  emblazoned  on  the 
trappings  of  her  palfreys.^  On  the  day  of  her  coro- 
nation, which  was  unusually  gorgeous,  the  queen  was 
allowed   the    monopoly    of    public   attention,    Henry 

^  Dr.  Gairdner,  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.,  Intro,  xxvii.  In  his 
Henry  VII.,  however.  Dr.  Gairdner  takes  a  gentler  view.  See 
p.  179. 

-  Hume  speaks  of  the  king's  "  disgust  towards  his  spouse," 
'  Heywood  of  her  Ufetime  rendered  miserable  by  the  dislike  in  which 
the  king  held  her. 

3  Privy  Purse  Expenses  of  EI iz.  of  York  (ed.  Nicolas),  Intro.  IxxA-ii.- 
sciii.  He  also  restored  her  lands  to  her.  Campljell,  Materials,  ii. 
265-271. 

*  Leland,  Collectanea,  iv.  249.  Her  will  has  been  quoted  as  a 
proof  that  she  was  reduced  to  destitution  by  Henry's  knavery,  but 
as  she  had  only  a  life  interest  in  her  property,  she  had  naturally 
little  to  leave. 

5  Leland,  Collectanea,  iv.  239-241. 


1485-1509]    BIPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN     387 

being  an  unseen  spectator  of  the  scene.     The  king's 
fair  wife  was  the  central  figure  of  all  the  ceremonies 
of  his  court  and  shared  in  all  its  amusements.^     There 
is  evidence  that  the  royal  pair  were  on  thoroughly 
good    terms    with    each    other.     Their    letters    were 
affectionate,    they    were    constantly    together,    and 
Henry  treated  her  very  generously  in  money  matters. 
They  often  gave  each  other  little  presents,  and  the 
queen  with  her  own  hands  adorned  Henry's  helmet 
with   jewels,    and   embroidered    his    Garter   mantle.^ 
No  one  can  read  the  simple,   touching  story  given 
by  the  herald  of   the  grief  of  the  royal  pair  at  the 
death  of  Prince  Arthur,  and  continue  to  believe  in 
the  old  story  of  Henry's  hatred  of  his  Yorkist  queen. 
"  Wlien  the  king   understood  that   sorrowful  heavy 
tidings  he  sent  for  the  queen,  saying  that  he  and  his 
queen    would    take    their    painful    sorrows    together. 
After  that  she  was  come,  and  saw  the  king,  her  lord, 
and  that  natural  and  painful  sorrow,  she  with  full 
great  and  constant  comfortable  words  besought  his 
grace  that  he  would   first  after  God   remember  the 
weal   of  his   own  noble  person,   the  comfort  of  his 
realm  and  of  her.    .    .    .    Then  the  king  thanked  her 
of  her  good  comfort.     After  that  she  was  departed 
and  come  to  her  own  chamber,  natural  and  motherly 
remembrance  of  that  great  loss  smote  her  so  sorrow- 
ful  to   the   heart,   that   those   that   were   about   her 
were  fain  to  send  for  the  king  to  comfort  her.     Then 
his  grace,  of  true,  faithful,  and  gentle  love  in  good 

1  The  queen  occasionally  went  hunting.  Like  Henry  she  enjoyed 
dancing,  cards,  and  dice,  and  kept  a  fool,  and  sometimes  took  part 
in  the  "  disguisings."  Privy  Purse  Expenses  of  Eliz.  of  York, 
pp.  21  seq.     She  was  specially  interested  in  gardening. 

2  Excerpta  Historica,  pp.  89,  91,  96,  112,  129;  Privy  Purse  Exp. 
Eliz.  of  York,  p.  8. 


388  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

haste  came  and  relieved  her,  and  showed  her  how 
wise  counsel  she  had  triven  him  before,  and  he  for 
his  part  would  thank  God  for  his  son,  and  would 
she  should  do  in  like  wise."  ^  Henry's  ability  and 
energy  left  Elizabeth  no  scope  for  political  action 
(for  which  she  was  unfitted  by  character  and  cir- 
cumstance), but  as  daughter,  A^fe,  and  mother  she 
seems  to  have  been  all  that  is  tender  and  womanly.- 
Erasmus  describes  her  as  brilliant,  witty,  and  pious. 
According  to  Andre  she  was  deeply  religious  and 
widely  charitable,  and  generous  to  all  who  had 
served  her.^  Some  of  her  habits  showed  a  very 
frugal  mind.  Her  gowns  were  often  mended,  re- 
lined  and  retrimmed,  but  in  spite  of  these  economies, 
owing  to  her  generosity,  she  was  constantly  in  debt 
and  had  to  be  helped  by  Henry.*  On  her  early  death 
the  king  ordered  that  this  most  gracious  and  best 
beloved  princess  should  be  buried  with  great  pomp, 
and  then  "  privily  departed  to  a  solitary  place  to 
pass  his  sorrow,  and  would  no  man  should  resort 
unto  him."  ^  John  de  Giglis'  rhapsody  about  "  the 
illustrious  maid  of  York,  most  beautiful  in  form, 
whose  matchless  face,  adorned  with  most  enchant- 
ing sweetness  shines,"  seems  to  have  been  more  a 
propos  than  many  courtly  effusions. 

Henry's  mother  was  a  really  able  woman,  "  strict 
and  stately,  a  woman  of  great  experience  and  of  many 

'  Leland,  Collectanea,  iv.  373. 

*  See  Privy  Purse  Exp.  of  Eliz.  of  York,  Ixv.-civ.  She  was  very 
generous  to  her  portionless  and  dependent  sisters,  and  to  Princess 
Katherine.     Ihid.,  pp.  9,  79,  94,  99,  &c. 

3  Andre,  Vita,  p.  37. 

*  Excerpta  Hiatorica,  pp.  107,  HI,  127. 

5  Antiquarian  Repertory,  iv.  654;  Privy  Purse  Expenses  of  Eliz. 
of  York,  xcvii.-ci. 


Emery  Wuiker,  Photo 
MARGARET   BEALFORT,  COUNTESS  OF   RICHMOND   AND    DERBY 
1441—1500 
From  the  painting,  bv  an  unknown  artist,  in  the  National  Portrsut  Gallery 


1485-1509]    DIPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN     389 

husbands,"  '  but  her  activity  found  little  scope  in 
politics  after  Henry's  accession.  She  employed  her 
talents  on  matters  of  court  ceremonial,  became  a 
patron  of  literature,  and  founded  a  professorship  at 
Oxford  and  a  college  at  Cambridge.  Fisher  dwells 
much  on  her  piety  and  asceticism.-  Ayala  thought 
she  had  considerable  influence  with  Henry,  more 
than  pleased  the  queen,  who,  though  popular,  was 
powerless.  Bacon's  account  is  that  "  his  mother  he 
reverenced  much,  heard  little  "  ;  but  in  the  absence  of 
further  evidence  all  theories  about  the  extent  of  her 
influence  over  Henry  are  equally  admissible,  and  may 
be  equally  ^vrong.  All  we  know  is  that  Henry  re- 
paid her  devotion  by  the  gift  of  his  rare  affection.  ^ 
Erasmus  has  left  a  charming  picture  of  the  life  of  the 
royal  family  at  their  favourite  palace  of  Richmond. 
All  Henry's  children  were  well  educated,  most  of  them 
were  accomplished  and  musical.  The  young  Prince 
Henry,  a  handsome  boy,  already  showing  signs  of  a 
high  spirit,  strong  will,  and  haughty  temper,  had 
been  well  educated,  and  treated  Erasmus  to  a  Latin 
speech,  to  which  the  mortified  scholar,  taken  un- 
awares, could  make  no  apt  reply.* 

Henry's  treatment  of  Katlierine  has  already  been 
discussed,^  and  it  appears  that,  though  there  were 
faults  on  both  sides,  Henry's  natural  kindliness  was 
warped  to  some  extent  by  a  desire  to  get  the  better 
of  Ferdinand  and  by  Katherine's  own  imprudence. 
The  king's  relations  with  his  family,  therefore,  bear 

1  Stubbs,  Lectures  on  Med.  and  Mod.  Hist.,  397. 

-  Fisher,  Month's  Mind  of  Lady  Marg.  (ed.  Mayor),  259-310. 

'  Their  letters  are  very  intimate  and  tender.  See,  for  instance, 
Halliwell,  Letters,  188;  Ellis,  Letters,  I.  (1),  42-8;  Everett  Green, 
Letters  of  Royal  Ladies,  pp.  118-9. 

♦  Letters  of  Erasmus,  ed.  Froude. 

6  See  above,  pp.  334-5,  357-360. 


390  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

scrutiny  better  than  is  common  in  royal  houses,  but 
he  does  not  seem  to  have  cared  much  for  any  one 
outside  his  family. 

He  was  constitutionally  indifferent  to  women.  No 
records  of  his  gallantries  have  come  do^\Ti  to  us. 
Yet  he  was  a  keen  critic  of  feminine  beauty.  His 
curiously  minute  inquiries  into  the  physical  charms 
of  many  of  the  fair  and  royal  ladies  of  Europe  (his 
ambassadors  had  to  satisfy  him  on  more  than  twenty 
points)  are  in  piquant  contrast  to  what  we  know  of 
the  "  grave  and  reverend  churchmarJike  king."  A 
solid  dower  would  not  satisfy  the  elderly  widower 
on  the  look-out  for  a  rich  young  wife ;  the  heiress 
must  be  a  beauty  as  well,  Hemy  is  really  amusing 
for  once,  even  if  unconsciously  so.  But  he  was  a 
man  of  contrasts,  and  the  story  of  his  pursuit  of  Juana 
of  Castile,  though  shorn  of  its  most  revolting  aspect, 
reveals  much  more  than  his  usual  indifference.  It 
shows  us  Henry  in  one  of  his  most  inhuman  moments, 
almost  brutally  absorbed  in  his  "  politic  "  schemes. 

But  all  these  details  of  Henry's  private  life,  which 
seem  so  much  at  variance  with  Bacon's  grey-toned 
study,  do  not  detract  from  its  essential  truth. 
Though  sharing  in  the  amusements  of  a  splendid 
court,  he  remained  intellectually  alone.  His  great 
aim  was  kingship,  his  passion  was  statecraft.  It  is 
not  strange,  therefore,  that  history  has  dwelt  little 
on  the  gentler  features  of  Henry's  character.  They 
were  no  addition  to  the  driving  power  that  made  and 
kept  him  king.  The  history  of  a  reign  chequered 
by  privy  conspiracy  and  rebellion  was  little  affected 
by  the  fact  that  the  king  had  genial  manners,  a 
lively  humour,  and  a  deep  affection  for  his  few 
intimates. 

The  contrast  between  medievalism  and  modernism 


US5-1509]    IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN     391 

characteristic  of  the  period  appears  in  the  charac- 
ter of  the  king  himself.  In  external  characteristics, 
like  much  of  the  England  of  his  day,  he  was  medieval, 
a  strict  and  pious  churchman,  a  mighty  hunter,  and 
a  founder  of  religious  houses.^  Henry's  piety  was 
undoubtedly  sincere.  Vergil  states  that  the  king 
gave  generously  to  religious  objects,  and  never  let 
business  or  lack  of  time  ])revent  him  from  hearing 
two  or  three  masses  daily  ;  that  he  gave  alms  in 
secret,  following  the  Christian  precept,  maintained 
an  almoner  in  his  household,  and  secretly  gave  large 
sums  of  money  to  provide  masses  for  his  soul  and 
for  the  welfare  of  the  whole  realm.-  He  prayed  much, 
we  are  told,  and  on  Church  festivals  especially  re- 
cited the  canonical  hours,  and  in  the  hour  of  triimiph 
he  never  forgot  to  give  thanks ;  his  religion  went 
beyond  mere  outward  observance.  He  founded 
many  religious  houses  and  chantries,^  and  went  on 
pilgrimages  to  the  famous  shrines  of  the  kingdom."* 
In  his  will  Henry  directed  that  a  kneeling  figure  of 
himself  in  golden  armour,  holding  in  its  hands  the 
crown  of  England,  should  be  given  to  each  of  these 
shrines ;  and  a  golden  figure  of  St.  George,  weighing 

*  He  was  specially  interested  in  the  Franciscans,  and  founded 
six  religious  houses  for  that  order.     See  Pol.  Verg.,  op.  cit.,  p.  617. 

-  Ibid.  ;  Fisher,  op.  cit.,  268-288. 

^  Three  chantry  priests,  for  instance,  were  maintained  at  the 
king's  expense  in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  the  Grey  Friars  sang 
daily  in  Carmarthen  church  for  the  souls  of  the  king's  father  and 
many  anniversaries  and  obits,  "  orisons,  prayers  and  suffrages," 
were  maintained  (MSS.  Harl.  1498,  fo.  916).  The  king's  will  left 
money  for  tapers  and  lights  to  biu-n  about  his  tomb,  "  continuallj^ 
and  f)erpetually  wliile  the  world  shall  endure." 

*  It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  Sir  Richard  Guildford,  one  of  the 
king's  intimate  friends,  went  on  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land  and 
died  there.  Pilgrimage  of  Sir  Richard  Guildford  (Camden  Society). 
See  also  Privy  Purse  Expenses,  Excerpta  Historica,  p.  88. 


392  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

14.0  ounces,  set  \\ith  diamonds,  rubies,  pearls,  and 
sapphires,  to  St.  George's  Chapel,  Windsor.  Among 
his  most  cherished  relics  were  a  piece  of  the  Holy  Cross 
brought  from  Greece,  the  leg  of  St.  George  captured  by 
Louis  of  France  at  the  siege  of  Milan,  both  of  which 
the  king  left  in  liis  will  to  the  altar  within  the  railings 
of  liis  tomb  at  Westminster.  The  king  never  forgot 
what  he  called  "  the  seven  works  of  Mercy,  Pitie, 
and  Charitie."  He  endowed  almshouses,  and  to  pro- 
vide for  the  care  of  the  poor,  the  sick,  and  the  dying 
he  founded  Savoy  Hospital,  "  because  there  be  fewe 
or  noon  suche  like  commone  Hospitallis  within  this 
our  Reame,  and  that  for  lack  of  theim  infinite  nombre 
of  pouer  nedie  people  miserably  dailly  die,  no  man 
putting  hande  of  helpe  or  remedie."  ^  Henry  was  an 
obedient  son  of  his  Holy  Father  the  Pope,  and  re- 
ceived from  three  Popes  in  succession  the  conse- 
crated cap  and  sword  which  distinguished  him  as  a 
prince  of  the  Church  militant.  His  minister,  Morton, 
was  made  a  cardinal,  but  he  failed  to  obtain  the 
canonisation  of  his  late  uncle,  Henry  VI.,  for  which 
he  had  been  very  anxious.  In  the  midst  of  rebellion 
at  home  and  threatening  intrigue  abroad,  he  had 
made  considerable  sacrifices  of  money  for  the 
Crusades. - 

All  the  more  sinister  Ijy  contrast  appear  his  dark 
medieval  traits,  the  secretiveness,  superstition,  and 
suspicion  that  increased  with  advancing  age.  He 
trusted  few  men,  suspected  many.  He  had  been 
plunged  too  early  into  the  bitter  waters  of  adversity, 

1  Will  of  Henry  VII.,  ed.  J.  Astle,  p.  15.  The  king  also  con- 
templated the  foundation  of  two  similar  hospitals  in  Coventry  and 
York,  and  left  £40,000  by  his  will  for  their  endowment,  but  this 
bequest  was  not  carried  out  by  his  executors.  Ho  also  founded  alms- 
houses in  Westminster. 

*  See  above,  p.  230. 


1485-1509]    IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN     393 

and  as  a  fugitive  exile,  eating  the  bread  of  depen- 
dence at  the  courts  of  France  and  Burgundy,  had 
learnt  to  watch  and  school  himself  until  repression 
had  killed  all  spontaneity.  He  was  "  a  dark  prince 
and  infinitely  suspicious."  Yet  the  system  of 
espionage  he  introduced  into  England  had  the  excuse 
of  political  necessity,  ''  he  had  such  moles  perpetu- 
ally working  and  casting  to  undermine  him,"  and 
nothing  is  heard  of  any  attempts  to  entrap  men  like 
the  contemporary  activity  of  the  Inquisition  in  Spain 
or  of  the  Medici  family.  The  king  gave  no  personal 
countenance  to  informers,^  and  his  spies  only  worked 
where  treason  was  kno^\ai  to  be  in  the  air.-  But  the 
character  that  had  been  moulded  and  hardened  by 
adversity  was  warped  by  this  continual  suspicion  in 
the  day  of  triumph.  "  His  continual  \dgilance,"  we 
are  told,  ''did  sometimes  suck  in  causeless  suspicions 
which  few  else  knew."  Superstition,  too,  had  a 
stroncr  hold  on  the  king's  mind.  Priests  and  astro- 
nomers  often  appeared  at  court  armed  with  "  prog- 
nostications "  and  prophecies  of  approaching  doom.^ 
At  times  the  ghosts  of  his  dead  past  seemed  to  peer 
and  beckon  over  the  king's  shoulder;  the  execution 
of  Warwick  was  a  sacrifice  of  the  king's  hatred  of 
bloodshed  to  his  panic-stricken  dread  of  a  prophesied 
danger. 

But  these  were  defects  of  his  later  years;  in  his 
prime  he  showed  a  very  modern  and  tolerant  spirit. 
He  had  the  faculty  of  looking  at  men  and  events  with 

1  See  the  story  told  at  the  time  of  the  Buckingham  conspiracy. 

*  See  the  Paston  LeUers,  iii.  323,  for  the  watch  kept  over  the 
EeitI  of  Surrey's  household. 

*  One  of  these  "  prognostications,"  brought  to  Henry  on  8th  Jan. 
1492  {Excerpta  Historica,  p.  85),  has  been  preserved.  See  Report  on 
MSS.  of  Lord  Middleton  (Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep.  1911),  pp.  263-6, 
and  App.  p.  613. 


394  HENRY    VII  [U85-1509 

a  half-humorous  detachment.  No  catastrophe  could 
disturb  him.  Rebel  subjects  threatening  the  capital, 
a  Scotch  army  crossing  the  border,  a  pretender  on 
the  high  seas  bent  on  invasion,  failed  to  rob  the  king 
of  his  presence  of  mind.  No  succession  of  dangerous 
plots  unnerved  him,  no  ingratitude  incensed  him,  no 
sudden  gust  of  anger  obscured  his  statecraft.  He 
was  patient  in  adversity  and  in  victory  unrevengeful. 
Bacon  speaks  of  Henry  as  "  a  merciful  prince,"  and 
notices  his  aversion  to  bloodshed.  "  His  pardons 
went  both  before  and  after  his  sword,"  he  writes  ; 
and  Hall  also  alludes  to  his  "  merccful  pitie."  But 
there  is  much  more  to  be  said  of  a  tenderness  for 
human  life  that  is  startling  in  \'iew  of  the  contem- 
porary tradition  of  brutality.  Henry's  attitude  to 
rebellion  was  really  original.  He  shook  himself  free 
of  the  cruelty  that  had  stained  the  civil  wars,  when 
victory  for  one  side  had  meant  death  and  confisca- 
tion for  the  other.  He  abandoned  the  proscriptions 
hitherto  associated  with  tyranny.  The  axe  of  the 
headsman  and  the  dungeons  of  the  Tower  were  rarely 
employed  in  compaiison  with  former  reigns.  Poli- 
tical impostors  met  a  scornful  clemency  that  empha- 
sised their  ignominy.  The  executions  of  his  reign 
were  so  much  measures  of  political  necessity  that 
they  seemed  to  Bacon  but  slight  blots  on  the  king's 
fame.  Warwick,  Stanley,  and  Audley  were  the  only 
important  victims  sacrificed  by  a  king  who  had 
taken  up  the  blood-stained  sceptre  of  Richard  III. 
Henry  had  a  short  memory  for  the  former  deeds  of 
men  who  gave  him  their  support,  and  thus  he  won 
over  the  nobler  spirits  to  Ms  side.  The  king  denied 
to  the  Yorkist  cause  the  strength  that  comes  from 
martyrdoms.  The  battle  of  Stoke  was  the  last  great 
baronial  conflict  on  English  soil,  and  Warbeck's  im- 


1485-1509]    IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN     395 

posture,  though  it  had  the  dangerous  support  of  foreign 
princes,  brought  no  outburst  of  Yorkist  enthusiasm 
in  England.  In  all  this  Henry  showed  a  spirit  that 
would  be  called  generosity  in  another  king.  But 
again  the  strange  contrasts  in  the  king's  nature 
obscure  his  nobler  qualities.  He  did  not  demand 
blood  as  the  price  of  rebellion,  but  cash.  A  swarm 
of  collectors  of  fines  and  compositions  settled  do%vTi 
like  flies  on  rebellious  counties,  and  the  appreciation 
of  princely  clemency  is  obscured  by  a  memory  of  his 
unroyal  bartering  of  pardons  for  pence.  Again,  the 
success  of  this  unrevengeful  habit  of  the  king's  as  a 
measure  of  policy  obscures  the  fact  that  it  arose  not 
from  calculation  but  from  a  mind  averse  to  blood- 
shed, a  kindly  temper  that  abhorred  severity,  and  a 
lofty  magnanimity  that  would  not  stoop  to  revenge. 
And  yet  this  tolerance,  this  modern  judicial  spirit, 
had  its  unfortunate  side.  It  marked  out  the  king's 
intellectual  loneliness.  The  times  were  those  of 
intense  partisanship,  bitterness  had  accumulated  in 
the  faction  fights  of  the  Roses,  and  the  king's  cold 
tolerance  was  alien  to  the  contemporary  spirit. 

Vergil,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  ver}'  acute 
observer,  notices  Henry's  sensitiveness  to  public 
opinion — a  very  modern  trait.  He  was  anxious  to 
make  a  good  impression  ;  "he  did  not  forget  that 
his  life  was  watched  by  the  eyes  of  many."  But  the 
fervid  loyalty  that  Henry  schemed  and  contrived  for 
eluded  him.  His  total  lack  of  enthusiasm  made  his 
character  non-magnetic.  He  was  too  cautious,  too 
calculating,  too  cold.  There  was  no  flash  of  daring 
to  beat  upon  men's  minds  and  fire  enthusiasm.  His 
appeal  was  to  the  head,  not  to  the  heart.  Though 
he  gained  the  confidence  and  support  of  his  people, 
he  did  not  win  their  love.     He  was  a  patient,  secret. 


396  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

very  lonely  man,  with  a  strength  of  will  and  character 
that  won  him  success,  not  sympathy.  He  had  no 
favourites,  hardly  any  friends.  There  is  no  record  of 
a  strong  personal  attachment. 

He  had  all  the  Tudor  self-will  and  impatience  of 
being  ruled  ;  his  ministers  were  servants  first  and 
counsellors  afterwards.  As  Bacon  put  it :  "  He  was 
of  an  high  mind,  and  loved  his  own  will  and  his  own 
way,  as  one  that  revered  himself  and  would  reign 
indeed.  Had  he  been  a  private  man  he  would  have 
been  termed  proud,  but  in  a  wise  prince  it  was  but 
keejoing  of  distance,  which,  indeed,  he  did  towards 
all,  not  admitting  any  full  or  near  approach  to  his 
power  or  to  his  secrets.  For  indeed  he  was  governed 
by  none.  .  .  .  He  had  nothing  in  him  of  vainglory, 
but  yet  kept  state  and  majesty  to  the  height."  ^ 

He  was  too  strong  to  fear  ability  in  others,  and 
could  employ  as  his  servants  the  ablest  men  in  the 
kingdom,  being  confident  of  his  own  power  of  keeping 
them  as  tools.  "  Neither  did  he  care  how  cunning 
they  were  that  he  did  employ,  for  he  thought  himself 
to  have  the  master  reach."  This  self-confidence  was 
not  misplaced.  Of  all  his  counsellors,  only  one,  Sir 
William  Stanley,  fell  from  loyalty  to  treason.  Henry's 
faithfulness  to  his  servants  is  noticed  by  Bacon. ^ 
No  minister  of  his  became  the  scapegoat  of  an  un- 
popular or  abandoned  policy. 

Another  of  the  modern  traits  in  Henry's  character 
was  his  freedom  from  insularity.  This  was  ap- 
preciated by  foreign  observers.  Ayala  wrote  that 
the  king,  not  being  a  pure  Englishman,  desired  to 

^  Bacon,  op.  cit.,  p.  2-iO.  "No  one,"  ^vrote  Vergil,  "had  so 
much  power  with  the  king  as  to  be  able  to  dare  or  do  anything  of 
his  own  authority  .   .   .  he  willed  to  rule  not  to  be  ruled  by  others." 

*  Bacon,  op.  cit.,  pp.  242-3. 


1486-1509]    IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN     397 

employ  foreigners  in  his  service,  which  was  checked 
by  the  diabolical  and  unequalled  jealousy  of  his 
English  subjects.  His  exile  had  familiarised  him 
with  the  continental  spirit,  and  he  knew  how  much 
England  missed  by  lack  of  intercourse  with  the 
world  beyond  the  Channel.  Therefore,  as  we  have 
seen,  he  welcomed  foreign  influences  at  his  court, 
and,  most  important  of  all,  began  the  practice  of 
keeping  resident  ambassadors  at  the  European  courts. 

On  the  much  discussed  question  of  Henry's  avarice. 
Bacon  has  a  few  words  that  anticipate  the  modern 
verdict.  He  paints  for  us  no  vulgar  miser,  but  a 
wise  prince  intent  at  first  only  on  escaping  the  poverty 
that  crippled  contemporary  rulers,  and  in  later  years 
carrying  carefulness  about  money  to  excess  through 
"  nature,  age,  peace,  and  a  mind  fixed  upon  no  other 
ambition  or  pursuit."  Contemporary  opinion  ac- 
quitted him  of  "  gredy  desire  of  riches  or  hunger 
of  money."  As  we  have  seen,  he  could  spend  mag- 
nificently. His  heavy  exactions  were  dictated  by 
policy,  not  greed.  Ayala  had  heard  from  the  king's 
own  mouth  that  "  he  intended  to  keep  his  subjects 
low,  because  riches  would  only  make  them  haughty," 
and  politic  motives  encouraged  the  recovery  of  those 
he  had  shorn.  As  Vergil  put  it,  he  wished  to  see 
their  plumes  grow  again.  "  He  mervellously  enriched 
his  realme  and  himselfe,  and  yet  left  his  subjects  in 
high  wealth  and  prosperity." 

IMany  of  the  qualities  that  made  Henry  a  good 
king  have  made  him  an  unpopular  man.  He  was 
too  businesslike  for  his  kingly  office.  Thrift  is  the 
most  repellent  of  all  the  virtues,  and  thrift  on  the 
throne  seems  stationed  too  high.  This  may  have 
something  to  do  with  the  feeling  of  cold  dislike  that 
has  gathered  round   King  Henry.     His  good  deeds 


398  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

are  unheroic,  his  bad  deeds  were  not  great  crimes, 
but  sordid  actions  for  which  some  poHtic  extenua- 
tion can  be  found.  It  is  impossible  to  become  en- 
thusiastic in  praise  or  blame,  it  is  even  difficult  to 
allot  either  without  reservation.  The  king  was 
neither  virtuous  nor  vicious,  but  lived  an  average 
life  in  a  moderate  way.  It  was  not  until  premature 
old  age  had  gripped  the  king  that  the  darker  shades 
in  his  character  became  prominent. 

One  great  historian  even  compares  him  unfavour- 
ably vnih  Maximilian,  and  asserts  that  while  morally 
Henry  was  far  the  superior,  every  one  likes  Maxi- 
milian better.^  But  is  this  so  ?  Can  we  honestly 
prefer  the  glittering  pinchbeck  of  the  proudly  styled 
King  of  the  Romans  to  the  stern  figure  of  the  founder 
of  the  most  characteristic  dynasty  that  ever  wore 
the  crown  of  England,  the  maker  of  modern  England, 
the  forerunner  of  our  naval  greatness  ?  If  we  do,  it 
is  strange  indeed. 

But  in  the  region  of  intellect  much  bolder  language 
can  be  used.     The  king's  ability  was  marvellous. 

There  is  no  doubt  of  the  reputation  that  Henry 
won  for  himself.  If  we  leave  out  of  account  the 
panegyrics  of  courtly  historians,  it  is  clear  that  he  left 
behind  him  "  a  name  which  was  the  admiration  of 
the  succeeding  age."^  To  Bacon  he  was  the  Solomon 
of  England  ;  to  Burleigh  he  was  a  storehouse  of  all 
heroical  virtues  ;  to  Stow  ''  a  prince  of  marvellous 
wisdom,  policy,  justice,  temperance,  and  gra\dty."3 

1  Stubbs,  Lectures  on  Mediceval  and  Modem  History,  p.  387. 
"  All  the  balance  of  real  goodness,  what  measure  there  is  of  politic 
honesty,  purity  of  life,  reality  of  character,  straight-forwardness 
in  reUgion,  intelUgent  appreciation  of  his  people's  needs,  every 
moral  consideration,  is  in  favour  of  Henry  Tudor:  yet  we  like 
Maximilian  better." 

*  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII.,  ii.,  Intro,  xxviii. 

'  See  also  Fabyan,  Chronicle,  p.  690. 


1485-1509]    IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN     399 

Hall,  following  Vergil,  gives  the  contemporary 
opinion  with  no  uncertain  voice.  He  was  "  of  wyt 
in  all  thynges  qiiycke  and  pronipte,  of  a  pryncely 
stomacke  and  haute  courage.  In  great  })erels,  doubt- 
full  affaires,  and  matters  of  weighty  importaunce, 
supernaturall  and  in  maner  devyne.  .  .  .  He  was 
sobre,  moderate,  honest,  affable,  courteous,  boun- 
teous, so  muche  abhorring  pride  and  arrogancy,  that 
he  was  ever  sharpe  and  qui  eke  to  them  which  were 
noted  or  spotted  with  that  crime." 

Bernard  Andre,  in  his  usual  style  of  tedious  pane- 
gyric, compares  the  king's  difficulties  to  the  twelve 
labours  of  Hercules,  and  finds  a  parallel  in  each  case. 
Richard  III.  is  the  Erymanthian  boar,  Margaret  of 
Burgundy  the  Amazons,  Perkin  Warbeck  in  Ireland 
is  Cacus  hiding  in  a  cave,  the  factions  of  the  red  and 
white  rose  are  the  Hydra,  and  so  on.  The  fact  that 
a  court  poet  was  capable  of  imaginative  glorification 
of  his  patron  is  not  specially  significant,  but  even 
the  most  captious  critic  can  find  some  meaning  in 
the  parallel.  It  is  not  an  empty  flattery,  but  a 
rendering,  in  the  taste  of  the  time,  of  a  very  real 
tribute  to  the  king's  success. 

Fisher's  eulogy  on  the  king's  personal  gifts — his 
quick  and  ready  wit,  his  retentive  memory,  Avide 
experience,  and  gracious  speech — contains  another 
eloquent  summary  of  his  successes.  "  Leagues  and 
confederacies  he  had  with  all  Christian  princes  ;  his 
mighty  power  was  dread  everywhere,  not  only  within 
his  realm,  but  without  also  ;  his  people  were  to  him 
in  as  humble  subjection  as  ever  they  were  to  king, 
his  land  many  a  day  in  peace  and  tranquillity."  ^ 

His  reputation  abroad  was,  as  Bacon  points  out, 

^  Fisher,  Sermon  on  Death  of  King  Henry  (Early  Eng.  Text 
Soc,  xxvii.). 


400  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

even  higher  than  it  was  at  home.  "  Foreigners 
noted  that  he  was  ever  in  strife  and  ever  aloft."  In 
his  later  years  the  reports  of  foreign  ambassadors  are 
uniformly  couched  in  the  same  tone  of  admiration 
for  the  king's  wisdom  and  belief  in  the  strength  of 
his  position.  The  Spanish  envoy  reported  that  the 
king  was  rich,  had  established  good  order  in  England, 
and  kept  the  people  in  such  subjection  as  had  never 
been  the  case  before.  "  His  good  fortune,"  wrote 
the  Italian  visitor,  "  has  been  equal  to  his  spirit,  for 
he  has  never  lost  a  battle.  From  the  time  of  William 
the  Conqueror  no  king  has  reigned  more  peaceably 
than  he  has,  his  great  prudence  causing  him  to  be 
universally  feared."  ^ 

He  came  to  the  throne  with  a  reputation  for  wis- 
dom, and  the  years  spread  round  him  the  glamour 
of  success.  This  valuable  growth  of  prestige  Henry 
fostered  by  bringing  into  play  his  personal  influence, 
by  no  means  a  negligible  factor,  dazzling  the  eyes  of 
ambassadors  and  envoys  by  a  display  of  wealth  and 
splendour,  winning  them  over  by  his  gracious  bearing. 
"  He  put  them  into  admiration,"  wTites  Bacon,  "  to 
find  his  universal  insight  into  the  affairs  of  the  world. 
...  So  that  they  did  ever  write  to  their  superiors  in 
high  terms  concerning  his  wisdom  and  art  of  rule."  "^ 

Henry  loses  nothing  by  comparison  with  his  foreign 
contemporaries  Ferdinand,  Louis,  Charles,  Maximilian, 
and  Philip.  He  was  by  far  the  ablest  of  them  all. 
His  task  was  harder,  and  he  accomplished  more  than 

1  Italian  Relation,  p.  46. 

-  As  we  have  seen,  de  Puebia  came  under  Henry's  influence  to  such 
an  extent  that  he  forgot  his  duty  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  The 
Venetian  ambassador,  after  a  long  audience,  reported  that  the  king 
was  gracious,  grave,  and  dignified.  He  knighted  the  ambassador, 
gave  him  a  collar  worth  500  ducats  and  a  fine  horse  from  the  royal 
stables.     Brown,  Ven.  Cal.,  i.  No8.y754,  764,  765. 


1485-1509]    IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN     401 

any  of  them.  Whether  we  regard  methods,  morals, 
or  achievements,  the  balance  must  be  in  favour  of 
the  Tudor. 

Was  Henry  a  great  king  ?     The  answers  to  this 
question    have    been    very    different.     Bacon    seems 
rather  to  under-estimate  than  over-estimate  the  king's 
abihty.     He  regards  him  as  an  opportunist,  dexterous 
in  evading  danger  rather  than  provident  in  prevent- 
ing the   cause  of  it,  near  sighted  rather  than  long 
sighted  ;    and   to  this  psychological  weakness  more 
than  to  the  pressure  of  circumstances  Bacon  attri- 
butes the  constant  perils  and  dangers  which  menaced 
him.     "  The     perpetual     troubles     of     his     fortunes 
(there  being  no  more  matter  out  of  which  they  grew) 
could  not  have  been  without  some  great  defects  and 
main  errors  in  his  nature,  customs,  and  proceedings."  ^ 
But,   with  all  deference,   it  seems  unfair  to  burden 
the    king's    character    with    responsibility    for    the 
troubles  which  made  care  and  watchfulness  a  neces- 
sity.    Further,  he  declared  that  Henry  lacked  lofty 
aims,  and  that  his  achievements  were  inconsiderable 
when  viewed  in  connection  with  the  manner  in  which 
he  was  endowed  by  nature  and  fortune.     An  oppor- 
tunist he  certainly  may  have  been,  with  the  gift  of 
snatching  gain  from  circumstances,  but  it  is  idle  to 
deny  that  he  had  one  gTcat  aim  to  which  all  else  was 
subordinated — ^that  of  founding  in  England  a  dynasty 
that  could  claim  and  enforce  obedience,  gain  and  use 
power  ;    and  this  aim,  though  it  lacks  the  glamour 
of  a  disinterested  ideal,  has  certainly  the  dignity  of 
practical    utility.     Bacon's    complaint    is    really    a 
reading  of  the  reign  in  the  light  of  the  political  theories 
current  in  his  o^^'n  time. 

Another  great  historian,  after  asking  the  question 

^  Bacon,  op.  cit.,  p.  244. 

2   C 


402  HENRY    VII  (1485-1509 

whether  Henry  was  a  great  king,  returns  a  doubtful 
answer.  He  finds  in  him  none  of  the  "  self-denying 
devotion  which  gives  itself  for  the  people " — no 
impulsive  well-doing.^  And  yet  these  things,  though 
perhaps  the  qualities  we  might  look  for  in  a  good 
man,  would  have  been  defects  in  a  great  king  placed 
in  Henry's  position.  It  was  not  "  impulsive  well- 
doing "  that  England  needed,  but  the  conduct  based 
on  coldly  reasoned  foresight  that  Henry  gave  her. 
Self-denying  devotion  would  not  have  been  as  useful 
to  England  as  the  heavy  hand  of  a  determined 
despot.  When  Henry  came  to  the  tlu'one,  weakness 
and  disorder  were  arresting  facts  that  made  a  practical 
aim  faithfully  pursued  more  valuable  than  the  most 
enlightened  theories.  No  weak  hand  could  have  led 
the  divided  and  distracted  nation,  but  Henry  VII. 
was  the  strongest  of  all  the  heavy-handed  Tudors. 
Not  swayed  by  sudden  personal  caprice  like  Henry 
VIII.,  not  subject  to  moods  of  irresolution  and  inde- 
cision like  Elizabeth,  his  strength  of  will  and  pur- 
pose seemed  superhuman.  When  the  chance  he  had 
waited  for  long  came  at  last,  it  found  him  prepared, 
and  he  fortified  his  position  with  all  the  arts  and  all 
the  dogged  grip  of  a  successful  adventurer.  What 
he  once  grasped,  he  held  for  always  ;  he  never  lost 
ground,  but  inch  by  inch  pushed  forward. 

The  eloquent  sentences  in  which  Bishop  Stubbs 
qualifies  Henry's  greatness  seem  to  prove  it.  He 
cannot  be  denied  the  title  of  a  great  king  ;  whether 
he  was  a  good  man  is  a  matter  of  opinion,  whether 
he  was  an  attractive  one  is  generally  negatived.  He 
had  none  of  the  arts  of  the  demagogue,  but  all  the 
qualities  of  the  despot.  He  was  a  statesman  first  of 
all,  and  as  a  statesman  he  must  be  judged. 

^  Stubbs,  op.  cit.  p.  425. 


1485-1509]    IMPORTANCE    OF   THE    REIGN     403 

"  What  he  minded,  he  compassed,"  and  success 
crowned  his  fine  striifforle  to  bring  order  out  of 
anarchy.  He  found  England  weak,  he  left  it  strong  ; 
he  found  it  divided,  he  left  it  united.  He  founded  a 
dynasty,  and  left  to  his  son  the  example  of  success- 
ful despotism,  a  strong  title,  a  great  treasure,  a  sub- 
servient nobility,  a  dependent  Church,  a  submissive 
Parliament,  and  a  popular  policy.  From  the  blood- 
stained horrors  of  dynastic  strife  there  emerged  an 
England  of  fair  promise. 

Unfortunately,  while  a  master  mind  has  empha- 
sized the  grey  tones  of  Henry's  character,  chance  has 
made  us  familiar  with  a  very  sombre  portrait  of 
the  king's  person.  Most  of  the  existing  pictures 
show  a  grey,  wasted  face  with  set,  harsh  features 
furrowed  by  suspicion  and  anxiety,  a  steely  grey  eye, 
and  a  pinched,  forbidding  mouth.  But  all  these 
pictures  have  the  same  original,  the  cast  taken  after 
death  for  his  monument.  Of  the  king  in  his  prime 
we  have  no  picture,  and  the  contemporary  accounts 
of  Henry's  beauty,  his  golden  hair  and  brilliant 
complexion,  seem  almost  unbelievable.  Yet  they  all 
agree  in  essentials.  Hall,  following  Vergil,  whose 
authority  as  a  contemporary  is  unchallengeable,  wrote 
of  Henry  as  a  man  "  of  body  but  leane  and  spare,i 
albeit  mighty  and  stronge  therwith,  of  personage  and 
stature  somewhat  hygher  then  the  meane  sorte  of 
men  be,  of  a  wonderfull  beutye  and  fayre  complexion, 
of  countenaunce  mery  and  smylyng,  especially  in  liis 
communication."  - 

*  This  is  a  curious  rendering  of  the  word  "  gracile,"  which  appears 
in  Vergil's  account. 

-  Hall,  Chron.,  p.  504  ;  Pol.  Verg.,  p.  61G.  Others  speak  of  the 
king's  sweet,  well-favoured  face,  his  goodly  and  amiable  ixsrson,  his 
natural  complexion  of  the  fairest  mixture,  and  so  on. 


404  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

But  the  familiar  portraits  of  the  king,  painted 
when  time  and  his  "  sorrowful  life  "  had  set  their 
mark  upon  him,  are  full  of  character.  It  is  a  strong, 
bold,  hard  face,  the  face  of  a  man  acute  and  pene- 
trative, cold  and  determined,  of  a  leader  of  men  not 
of  a  popular  hero,  a  man  to  be  obeyed  and  feared, 
not  loved.  Strength  not  sympathy,  watchfulness  not 
generosity,  are  written  in  the  much-lined  face. 

Even  if  there  be  a  difference  of  opinion  about 
Henry's  personal  character,  there  can  be  none  about 
the  importance  of  the  reign.  It  is  a  historical  com- 
monplace that  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  marks 
the  line  between  medieval  and  modern  Europe. 
Though  obviously  no  such  line  of  demarcation  can 
be  scientifically  accurate,  the  history  of  the  reign  of 
Henry  VII.  reveals  the  constant  contact  and  conflict 
of  things  new  and  old,  both  in  fact  and  theory.  A 
Crusade  and  a  voyage  in  search  of  the  North-West 
Passage  come  together;  a  law  forbidding  usury,  and 
an  enormous  expansion  of  the  credit  system;  an  in- 
vasion of  France  by  the  king  in  person,  reviving 
the  memory  of  the  triumphs  of  Crecy  and  Agin- 
court,  and  an  anticipation  of  the  modern  attempt  to 
secure  peace  by  maintaining  a  balance  of  power  in 
Europe. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  read  the  reign  in  the 
contemporary  spirit.  It  is  easy  to  exaggerate  the 
immediate  effect  of  events  which  later  proved  to  be 
of  immense  importance  ;  there  is  a  constant  tempta- 
tion to  read  too  much  of  the  future  into  the  events 
of  the  time.  To  us  the  reign  appears  a  time  of  be- 
ginnings, of  fresh  starts  in  nearly  every  branch  of 
human  activity  ;  but  the  points  which  contemporaries 
— not  being  prophets — dwell  upon  are  the  details  of 
conspiracy    and    the    incidents    of    diplomacy.     The 


1485-1509]    IMPORTANCE    OF   THE    REIGN    405 

germs  in  which  the  history  of  modern  Europe  was 
hidden  escaped  them.  Dying  medievaHsm  and  aspir- 
ing modernism  were  in  contact,  but  the  friction  pro- 
duced only  a  spark  here  and  there,  no  illuminating 
flash  to  make  its  mark  on  the  contemporary  imagina- 
tion. We  have  not,  therefore,  on  anything  but  the 
king's  personal  character  the  verdict  of  the  men  of 
his  own  day. 

There  is  an  irrational  but  irresistible  feeling  of 
disappointment  that  no  dramatic  events  ushered  in 
these  great  beginnings.  Their  effect  during  the  reign 
was  insignificant,  and  occasionally — as  in  the  case 
of  the  printing  press,  which  at  first  almost  smothered 
creative  literature — bad.  Mighty  changes  of  prin- 
ciple were  introduced,  but  the  principle  long  lay 
buried  under  a  series  of  empirical  experiments.  The 
Cabot  voyages  set  the  ships  of  England  on  the  course 
which  was  to  foimd  the  world  empire  of  a  great 
naval  power,  but  for  practical  purposes  they  were 
little  more  than  unsuccessful  commercial  specula- 
tions. The  New  World  of  the  West  was  discovered 
by  accident  in  an  attempt  to  find  a  new  route  to  the 
old  trading  grounds  of  the  East,  and  the  failure  of 
that  attempt  appeared  more  significant  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  VII.  than  the  continent  discovered  by 
chance.  The  same  point  is  to  be  noticed  about  the 
Renaissance  :  the  spirit  of  modern  Europe  was  there, 
but  it  was  at  first  inarticulate.  The  visible  hnks 
with  the  past  attracted  eyes  which  could  not  see, 
as  we  do,  the  links  leading  on  to  a  mighty  future. 
In  another  aspect  the  reign  began  a  period  which 
ended  onh-  with  the  Napoleonic  wars,  a  period 
dominated  by  the  territorial  ambitions  of  rival 
European  states.  Europe  was  in  the  throes  of  a 
great  separatist  movement.     The  old  bonds  of  the 


406  HENRY    VII  [1485-1509 

Papacy  and  the  Empire  were  giving  way,  and  the 
separate  states  of  Europe  were  pushing  their  oppos- 
ing way  in  a  world  which  had  lost  its  old  boundaries 
by  the  geographical  discoveries.  The  admitted  ten- 
dency of  modern  writers  to  exaggerate  the  effect  of 
national  character  on  history  need  not  obscure  one 
of  the  most  interesting  points  in  the  reign — the 
emergence  of  a  self-conscious  national  spirit  with 
keen  ambitions.  In  England,  national  replaced  local 
patriotism,  and  hardened  rapidly  within  natural 
frontiers. 

The  political  rise  of  the  middle  class,  whose  influ- 
ence on  history  before  the  age  of  great  revolutions  is 
a  purely  English  phenomenon,  is  another  new  feature. 
The  strength  of  the  English  House  of  Commons 
during  the  centuries  that  followed  the  death  of 
Henry  VII.  was  an  exception  to  the  usual  position 
of  the  third  estates  in  other  European  countries. 
This  development,  which  has  been  an  ingredient  giving 
a  marked  flavour  to  the  development  of  national  char- 
acter, was  due  in  great  measure  to  the  Parliamentary 
despotism  of  Henry  VII.  and  his  descendants. 

Sixteenth -century  English  history  is  the  era  of 
triumphant  personality.  The  sovereigns  of  the  Tudor 
line  drove  their  personality  deep  into  history,  and 
the  stamp  of  those  bold,  strong  figures  is  printed 
deeply  for  all  time.  Personal  character  became  a 
potent  force,  but  the  period  of  its  triumph  was  the 
result  of  the  work  done  by  the  uninspiring  founder  of 
the  mighty  dynasty.  The  slow,  secret,  patient  work 
of  Henry  VII.  laid  the  foundation  upon  which  his 
successors  reared  the  glittering  fabric  of  their  domi- 
nating personalities.!     He  was  the  ancestor  in  char- 

*  Henry  VII.  and  his  famous  son  now  face  each  other  across  the 
entrance  to  the  lobby  of  the  House  of  Conamons,  and  these  modem 


1485-1509]     IMPORTANCE    OF    THE    REIGN     407 

acter  as  well  as  in  fact  of  that  curiously  individual 
family.  In  his  complex  nature  we  find  most  of 
the  characteristics  of  his  descendants — the  ruthless 
strength  of  his  son  as  well  as  the  literary  interests  of 
his  grandson,  the  narrow  piety  of  Mary  and  the  com- 
mon sense  and  commercial  spirit  of  Elizabeth — and 
from  him  they  inherited  the  delicate  tact  and  in- 
stinct for  popularity  common  to  them  all. 

In  spite  of  the  lack  of  contemporary  recognition, 
it  is  hardly  an  over-statement  to  say  that  every 
force — political,  social,  religious,  and  intellectual — 
which  moulded  the  history  of  England  for  some 
four  hundred  years  appeared  first  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VII.  We  have  seen  the  founding  of  the  Tudor 
despotism,  the  creation  of  a  royal  navy,  the  revival 
of  learning,  the  introduction  of  the  printing  press, 
the  beginning  of  modern  diplomacy,  the  appearance 
of  national  self-consciousness ;  we  have  seen  the 
anticipation  of  the  mercantile  system,  of  the  idea  of 
the  balance  of  power,  of  the  rise  of  the  middle  class, 
and  of  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries.  Finally, 
the  voyages  of  discovery  heralded  the  dawn  of  a 
new  age,  in  which  the  Atlantic  replaced  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  England  became  the  central  fortress  of 
civilisation  instead  of  its  last  outpost  on  the  edge  of 
the  unknown. 

wall  paintings  happily  reveal  the  essential  contrast  between  them. 
It  is  a  contrast  between  mind  and  matter,  between  the  frail  tenement 
of  a  mighty  spirit  and  triumphant  materiaUsm,  Ijetweeii  the  man  who 
fought  for  and  him  who  inherited,  success. 


APPENDICES 


ITINERARY    OF    HENRY    VII 

Note, — Hie  Charter,  Patent,  and  Close  Rolls  of  tlie  rtign  furnish  the 
greater  part  of  the  Itinerary.  Additions  from,  other  sources,  such  as  the 
collections  of  royal  letters,  and  the  privy  purse  expenses,  are  distinguisJied 
by  the  reference  numbers. 

1485.  Aug.  22,  Bosworth  Field  ;  27,  London.^  Sept.  1-3,  West- 
minster ;  3,  Guildford ;  5,  Westminster  ;  6-7,  Guildford  ;  -  8-19, 
Westminster.  Oct.  30,  Westminster  (Coronation  in  Abbey).  Nov. 
7,  Westminster  (Opening  of  Parliament)  ;  8-19,  Westminster.* 
Dec.  1-9,  Westminster  ;  -  10,  Westminster  (Prorogation  of  Parlia- 
ment) ;  17,  Greenwich. - 

1486.  Jan.  18,  Westminster  (Marriage  with  Elizabeth  of  York) ; 
21,  Westminster.-  Feb.  24,  Westminster.-  Mar.  10,  Ware, 
Royston  ;  11,  12,  Canterbury  ;  16,  Peterborough,  Stamford  ;  17, 
Stamford  ;  22-28,  Ely.  April  1-5,  Lincoln;  7-15,  Nottingham; 
21-28,  York  ;  29,  30,  Doncaster.  May  2-5,  Nottingham  ;  8-12, 
Birmingham  ;  10-15,  Worcester ;  20,  Gloucester  ;  21,  Bristol ;  22, 
Gloucester  ;  23-26,  Bristol  ;  28,  Abingdon ;  30,  Westminster. 
Aug.  30,  Somersham  (co.  Huntingdon).  Sept.  1-6,  Winchester  ; 
7,  Salisbury  ;  -  9,  East  Derehaui  ;  -  10,  Brandon  Ferry  (co.  Suffolk)  ; 
12-16,  Downham  ;  14,  Greenwich,-  Christchurch  Monastery  (in 
Southwark);  17-27,  Winchester.  Oct.  2,  Mailing  Abbey;  4, 
Winchester;  9,  Greenwich  ;-  13-24,  Winchester.-  Nov.  1,  Green- 
wich ;  *  6-11,  Westminster;-  13-22,  Greenwich;''  22-Jan.  13, 
1487,  Greenwich.- 

1487.  Jan.  1-13,  Greenwich;*  21-24,  Windsor;  22,  Canter- 
bury; 25,  Mour;^  27-31,  Sheen.-  Feb.  l-March  U,  Sheen.* 
Mar.  19,  Chertsey  Monastery ;  -   20,  Westminster ;  22,  Croydon, 

^  City  Chronicle  (ed.  Kingsford). 

*  Materials  for  Reign  of  Henry  VII.  (Rolls  Ser.). 

'  This,  the  "  royal  manor  of  Moore,"  is  probably  Moor  in  Elssex. 


412  HENRY    VII 

Sheen ;  25,  26,  CliL-rtsey  ;  »  28,  Fulham ;  30,  Hevinghani  Castle, 
April  1-2,  Colchester ;  '  4-8,  Bury  St.  Edmunds  Abbey ; '  10, 
Colchester,  East  Hailing ;  ^  1 1-13,  17,  Norwich  ;  17,  Walsingham  ;  * 
18-19,  Cambridge;  22,  York;  22-30,  Coventry.'  Mmj  1-8,  9-14, 
17,  22-27,  31,  Kenilworth  Castle."  June  1-5,  Kenilworth  Castle  ; 
16,  Battle  of  Stoke  ;  24,  Leicester  ;  27,  Kenilworth  Castle  ;  29, 
Pontefract;  30,  Kenilworth.  July  1-18,  Kenilworth  ;  20,  Raby;» 
21-22,  Kenilworth;  2&-26,  Nottingham;  29,  Pontefract;  30-31, 
York.  Aug.  1-6,  York ; '  8,  11,  13,  Durham;  9,  Croft;*  14-18, 
Newcastle-on-Tyne ;  '  19-20,  Durham  ;  22,  Richmond  (co.  York)  ; 
23-24,  Ripon  ;  25-27,  Pontefract  Castle  ;  28,  Newark,  Chesterford  ; 
29,  Stamford  ;  30,  Huntingdon.  Sept.  1-3,  V/arwick  ; '  8-10, 
Leicester  Abbey  ;'  11,  Warwick  ;'  11-12,  Rockingham  Castle;* 
17-20,  Warwick.  Nov.  2,  St.  Alban's  Abbey  ;  4,  City  of  London  ;  * 
9,  Westminster  (Opening  of  Second  Parliament)  ;  i  7-30,  West- 
minster ;  20,  Greenwich  ;  23,  Tower  of  London  ;  25,  Westminster 
Abbey  (Coronation  of  Queen).  Dec.  1-5,  Greenwich;  11-18, 
Westminster  ;  19-22,  25-31,  Greenwich.^ 

1488.  Jan.  10,  Rochester,'  Esher  ;'  13-23,  Greenwich  ;  29-Feb. 
1,  Westminster.'  Feb.  2-6,  Greenwich.'  liar.  5,  Sheen ;  *  6, 
Westminster;'  8-17,  Sheen;  18-20,  Canterbury;  21-22,  Sand- 
wich;' 23-24,  Dover;'  25-31,  Canterbury.  April  I,  2,  5,  8, 
Canterbury  ;  8-11,  Windsor  ; '  14,  Southampton  ; »  10,  Maidstone  ; 
17-18,  Chichester  ; '  19  (Easter  Day),  Windsor  ;  20-28,  Windsor. 
May  1,  Sheen  ;  3-21,  Westminster  ;  25-28,  Windsor  ;  29-30, 
Croydon.*  June  1-2,  Croydon  ;  2,  Sheen  ;  4-14,  Windsor ;  8, 
Maidstone  ;  18-20,  Westminster  ;  2S- July  14,  Kenilworth  Castle.' 
Jidy  1-14,  Kenilworth  Castle  ;  '  16,  Abingdon  Abbey  ; '  19,  ^^'ood- 

1  Materials  (Rolls  Ser.). 

2  Ellis,  Letters  I.,  1. 

^  This  was  the  Diirliam  seat  of  the  Nevill  family. 

*  This  is  probably  a  hamlet  in  Yorksliire  on  the  Durham  side  of 
the  Tees. 

*  City  Chronicle  (ed.  Kingsford). 
"  Leland,  Collectanea,  iv. 

'  Esher  was  the  site  of  a  royal  manor  or  palace. 

"  Leland,  Collectanea,  iv.  The  king  visits  and  inspects  Venetian 
galleys. 

"  When  at  Croydon  the  king  was  entertained  at  the  Archbishop's 
palace. 


ITINERARY  413 

stock  manor  ; '  23,  Kenilworth  ; '  Tame  ; '  26,  Abingdon  ;  '■  27- 
Ai{g.  4,  8-12,  Windsor  ; '  13,  Horsham  ;  15,  Lewes  ;  16,  Charing  ;=* 
17,  Battle  ;  20,  Raby  ;  23,  Lewes  ;  27,  Arundel  ;  29,  Slindon. 
Sept.  3-9,  Windsor  ;i  10-11,  Knole  ;  16,  Ashford  ;  19,  22,  Can- 
terbury. Nov.  1-2,  Windsor  ;  4,  Sheen ;  10-30,  Westminster. 
Dec.  1-18,  Westminster  ;  23,  Maidstone  ;  25-27,  Sheen. 

1489.  Jan.  3,  Maidstone  ;  11-13,  Westminster  (Opening  of 
Third  Parliament)  ;  14,  Windsor ;  15-28,  Westminster  ;  29,  Sheen. 
Feb.  1-23,  Westminster  ;  23,  Westminster  (Parliament  prorogued). 
April  4,  Windsor  ;  8-May  12,  Hertford  Castle. ^  May  1-12, 
Hertford  Castle  ;  ^  21-June  3,  York  ;  4,  Pontefract  ;  10,  Notting- 
ham ;  11,  Harborough,  Leicester;  12,  Northampton;  14,  St. 
Albans  ;  18,  Woodstock  ;  ^  21,  Northampton ;  ^  20-Jyly  13, 
Windsor.*  Aug.  4,  Souning;*  4^Sept.  19,  Windsor.  Oct.  4, 
Westminster  (Second  Session  of  Third  Parliament  opens).  Nov. 
1-30,  Westminster.  Dec.  4,  Westminster  (Third  Parliament  pro- 
rogued). 

1490.  Jail.  24,  Westminster  (Third  Session  of  Third  Parliament 
opens).  April  10-11,  Canterbury.  July  11-28,  Westminster.* 
Aug.  14,  Windsor;  15,  Eltham.*  Sept.  10-15,  Manor  of  Woking; 
17,  Woking  ;  19,  Ewelme  Manor  (co.  Oxford) ;  22,  Windsor  ;  ^  28, 
Westminster  ;  30,  Ewelme  Manor.  Oct.  16,  EAvelme  ;  21,  24,  Mort- 
lake.  Nov.  15-18,  21-26,  Windsor  ;  29-30,  Westminster.'  Dec. 
1-3,  7-19,  Windsor ;  21,  Greenwich  ;  23,  Maidstone  ;  26-28,  West- 
minster. 

1491.  Jan.  2-8,  Maidstone.  Mar.  31,  Canterbury.  April  3 
(Easter  Day),  Canterbury ;  4-8,  Canterbury.  June,  Green- 
wich (June  22,  Birth  of  Prince  Henry).  July  11,  Greenwich;* 
19-20,  22,  Colchester  ;  28,  Norwich.  Aug.  4,  Bury  St.  Edmunds ; 
5  Ely  ;  10,  Northampton  ;  14,  Leicester  ;  31,  Tewkesbury.     Sept. 

1  Materials  (Rolls  Ser.). 

2  Tlie  Archbishops  of  Canterbury  had  another  palace  here. 

2  During  July  and  August  the  king  was  hunting  in  Windsor 
Forest  and  Enfield  Chase.     Leland,  Collectanea. 

*  The  king  had  a  hunting  lodge  at  Sonning. 
5  L.  and  P.  Hen.  VII. 

*  There  was  a  royal  manor  at  Eltham. 

'  On  these  dates  Princo  Arthur  was  created  Prince  of  Wales  and 
Princess  Margaret  was  christened.     Leland,  Collectanea. 
«  Elhs,  Letters,  II.  (i.),  170-3. 


414  HENRY    VII 

2-6,  Gloucester  ;  8,  Kiugswood  ;  10-14,  Bristol ; »  19,  Wells  ;  29, 
Shaftesbury  ;  30,  Salisbury.  Oct.  1,  Salisbury  ;  5,  Marlborough  ; 
14,  Westminster-  (Meeting  of  Third  Parliament)  ;  15-30,  West- 
minster.    Nov.  4,  Westminster  -  (Fourth  Parliament  prorogued). 

1492.  Jan.  8,  Isleworth  ;  •'  18,  W^indsor  ;  ^  23,  Sheen  ;  ^  24, 
Westminster  (Second  Session  of  Fourth  Parliament) ;  25,  Tower  of 
London.^  3Iar.  5,  Westminster  (Fourth  Parliament  dissolved). 
April  5,  Canterbury  ;  6,  Sheen  ;  ^  15,  Windsor  ;  19,  Sheen  ;  22-24, 
Canterbury.  May  1,  Mayfield  *  (co.  Sussex) ;  7,  Sheen.  JvJy  19, 
Windsor  ;  *  22,  Greenwich  ; '  30,  St.  Mary  Cray,^  Maidstone  ; ' 
31,  Sittingbourne.      A^lg.   1-12,  Canterbury  ;    13,  Sittingbourne  ; 

14,  15,  Maidstone;  16,  Dartford ;  17,  Greenwich;'  27,  Windsor. 
Sept.  4,  Dartford;^  7,  Maidstone;*  9,  Sittingbourne;  10-24, 
Canterbury  ;  24,  Sandwich  ;  24-30,  Canterbury.  Oct.  2,  Dover 
(King  sails  for  France)  ;  2-16,  Calais  ;  18-30,  Boulogne.  Nov.  1-4, 
Boulogne.  Dec.  7-11,  Calais;*  17,  Dover;  19,  Greenwich;  22, 
City  of  London  (State  visit)  ;  25,  Westminster. 

1493.  Jan.  1,  Westminster.*  Feb.  14,  Lambeth  ;  *  19,  West- 
minster.* 3Iar.  2,  Westminster  ; ''  30,  Canterbury.  April  2-10, 
Canterbury;  15,  Windsor ; «  21,  "At  Richard  Lees";«  22, 
Buckingham  ;  *  25,  Banbury,  Warwick  ;  *  30,  Coventry.*  May  13, 
Northampton.*  June  5,  Coventry."  Atig.  22,  Saltwood  ;  27,  Maid- 
stone. Oct.  2,  Colly  Weston  ;  *  17,  "  Moorhende  "  (1  Moor  Place, 
Surrey)  ;  20,  "  At  Richard  Lees "  ;  *  22,  Windsor.*  Dec.  22-26, 
Maidstone. 

1494.  Jan.  4,  Maidstone  ;    7,   Windsor  ;  *    12,   Winchcombe  ;  * 

15,  Fowlers  ; '  17,  Woodstock ;  *  18,  Minster  Lovell ;  *  19,  Oxford  ;  * 
22,  Woodstock  ; »  23,  F«>wlers  ;  *  24,  Wycombe  :  '  25,  Windsor  ;  * 
26,  Isleworth  ;  31,  Westminster.  Feb.  23,  Sheen.  Mar.  13, 
Uxbridge  ;  20-30,  Canterbury.  April  2,  Greenwich  ;  *  5,  Dart- 
ford  ;  *  8,  Rochester,"  Canterbury  ;  9-14,  Canterbury  ;  *  15, 
Sandwich  ;  *  19,  Dover  ;  *  26,  Dartford  ;  *  30,  Greenwich.*  June  1, 
Sheen.6  Aug.  2-10,  Sheen  ;  *  12,  Syon  Abbey  ;  *  14,  Windsor  ;  19, 
Reading ;  20,  Ewelme  ;  23,  Abingdon.*     Sept.  1,  W^oodstock  ;  *  4, 

*  RicarVs  Calendar  of  Bristol,  45-47. 
2  Rot.  Pari.  (Rolls  Ser.),  vi.  440. 

'  Privy  Purse  Expenses,  Excerpta  Hisiorica  (od.  Bentley). 

*  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  had  a  palace  there. 

*  Stow,  Anrudes. 

*  Privy  Purse  Expenses  ;  L.  and  P.  Henry  VII. 
'  Near  Cranbrook  in  Kent. 


ITINERARY  415 

Langley  ;  12-16,  Canterbury.  Oct.  1,  Westminster;  26,  Sheen; 
27,  Westminster.  Nov.  1,  Westminster  (Prince  Henry  created 
Duke  of  York  ')  ;  2-14,  Westminster.  Dec.  22,  Knole  ;  23,  Green- 
wich ;  26-29,  Tower  of  London. 

1495.  Jan.  30,  Westminster ;  31,  Greenwich.^  Mar.  2,  Sheen. 
April  1,  Sheen;-  18-27,  Canterbury;  28,  Westminster.  May 
7,  Eltham;^  15,  Sheen.-  June  21,  Wycombe  ;  ^  22,  Notley '^ 
(co.  Bucks);  23,  Woodstock."  July  1,  Chipping  Norton;*  2, 
Evesham;*  3,  Tewkesbury;*  4,  Worcester;*  10,  Bewdley;*  12, 
Ludlow  ;  *  15,  Shrewsbury  ;  *  16,  Combermere  Abbey  ;  17,  Holt 
Castle*  (co.  Worcs.  or  co.  Denbigh);  18,  Chester;*  20,  Kenil- 
worth  Castle ;  *  27,  Vale  Royal  Abbey  ;  28,  Alnwick  ;  30, 
Latham.*  Aug.  3,  Knowsley  ;  *  4,  Warrington  ;  *  5,  Manchester  ;  * 
6,  May  field  (co.  Stafts.)  ;  8,  Newcastle  ;  *  10,  Stafford  ;*  11,  Lich- 
field ;  -  12,  Burton  ;  *  13,  Derby  ;  28,  Loughborough  ;  29,  Leigh 
(?  CO.  Salop).  Sept.  1,  Wollaston  ;  4,  Colly  Weston  ;*  11,  Rock- 
ingham ;  12,  Northampton;  16,  Banbury;  19,  Woodstock;* 
29,  Ewelme  ; »  30,  Bisham.  Oct.  1,  Windsor  ;  *  3,  Sheen  ;  *  14, 
Westminster  (Meeting  of  Fifth  Parliament)  ;  16,  Westminster.* 
Nov.  16,  Ely  Place.6     Dec.  21,  Westminster. 

1496.  Feb.  26,  Sheen.*  3Iar.  24^April  4,  Canterbury.  April 
5,  Westminster;  15,  Maidstone  ;  16,  Sheen.*  May  12,  Sheen  ;* 
15,  Westminster  ;  *  17,  Sheen.*  June  12-21,  Sheen  ;  *  23,  Merton 
Abbey ;  25,  Chertsey  Abbey  ;  26,  Guildford.  July  2,  Faversham 
Abbey  ;  3,  "  Alfford  "  ;  5,  Waltham  *  (Bishops'  Waltham  held  by 
the  Bishops  of  Winchester) ;  10,  Porchester  ;  *  14,  Southampton  ;  * 
20,  Bewley  ;  *  21,  Isle  of  Wight ;  *  23,  Bewley  ;  *  25,  Christchurch  ; 
26,  Poole ;  *  27,  Corfe  Castle.*  Au,g.  5,  Salisbury  ;  *  10,  Haytes- 
bury  ;*  11,  Broke*  (co.  Wilts)  ;  12,  Bath  ;  13,  Bristol ;'  19,  Acton 
Turville ;  21,  Malmesbury  Abbey  ;  25,  Cirencester  Abbey ;  *  30, 
Woodstock.*  Sept.  9,  Wycombe;*  10,  Windsor;  21,  Windsor. 
Oct.  2A-Nov.  5,  Westminster  (Great  Council)  ;  30,  St.  Paul'.s  Cathe- 
dral (State  Visit).*    Nov.  1-5,  Westminster.     Dec.  25,  Greenwich. 

1  L.  and  P.  Henry  VII. 

*  Privy  Purse  Expenses. 

3  Ellis,  Letters,  I.  (i.),  No.  xi. 

*  This  was  one  of  the  seats  of  the  Earl  of  Derby. 

5  Tliis  was  the  seat  of  Edmund  de  la  Pole,  Earl  of  Suffolk. 

*  I^ng  and  queen  dine  with  the  Serjeants  {City  Chronicle). 
'  RicarVs  Calendar  of  Bristol. 


416  HENRY    VII 

1497.  Jan.  16,  Westminster  (Meeting  of  Sixth  Parliament)  ; 
Feb.  17,  Sheen.i  Mar.  13,  Westminster,-  (Sixth  Parliament 
dissolved);  17,  Sheen;  18,  Maidstone  ;i  25-26,  Canterbury.  Afril 
17,  London  ;  ^  21,  Greenwich.^  June  5,  Aylesbury  ;^  11,  Bucking- 
ham ;  ^  12,  Banbury  ;i  13,  Woodstock ;  ^  14,  Abingdon;^  15, 
Wallingford;'  16,  Reading,  Windsor,^  Kingston,  Lambeth ;  i  18, 
St.  Geor^'e's-in-the-Field,»  Blackheath,  St.  Paul's;^  18-23,  Tower 
of  London.i  Jxdy  1,  Sheen  ;  ^  29,  Netley  Abbey  (co.  Hants) ;  30, 
Woodstock.  Aug.  1-19,  Woodstock;^  19,  Cornbury  (co.  Oxford)  ; 
21,  Minster  Lovell;i  22,  Woodstock.*  Sept.  1-13,  Woodstock;^ 
17,  Cirencester  ;  ^  28,  Malmesbury  Abbey  ;  ^  29,  Bath  ;  ^  30,  Wells.^ 
Oct.  2,  Glastonbury  ;  ^  3,  Bridgwater  ;  4-5,  Taunton  ;  ^  6,  Tiverton  ;  ^ 

7,  Exeter.i     2\ov.  18,  Sheen ;  23,  Westminster.     Dec.  25,  Sheen. 

1498.  Feb.  21,  Greenwich  (Birth  of  Prince  Edmund).  Mar.  15, 
19-21,  Westminster;  23,  24-26,  Maidstone;  28,  Charing.  April 
2-17,  Canterbury  ;  19,  Maidstone  ;  ^  20,  Faversham  Abbey,*  Canter- 
bury ;*  26,  Sittingbourne  ;  ^  27,  Rochester  ;  ^  28,  Dartford.*     May 

8,  Tower  of  London  ;  15,  Elsing  ;  23,  Hertford.  June  9,  West- 
minster ;  15,  Sheen.*  Aug.  1,  Havering  ;  3,  Bordefeld  ;  *  4,  Mont- 
gomery ;  *  6-11,  Castle  Hedingham:^  14,  Bury  ;  ^  20,  Buckenham 
Castle «  (co.   Norf.) ;   21,   Norwich ; »   22,  Blickling  (co.  Korf.)  ; ' 

23,  Walsingham  ;  24-25,  Lynn;  29,  Knole.  Sept.  5,  "At  Pet. 
Herough's  "  ;  7,  Colly  Weston  ;  ^  8,  Huntingdon  ;  ^  12,  Harrowden « 
(co.  Northants)  ;  13,  Northampton  ;  ^  16,  Edgcote  ;  *  19,  Banbury  ;  i 
20,  Woodstock;  21,  30,  Knole.  Oct.  1,  Croydon;  4,  Langley, 
Woodstock.  Nov.  22,  Westminster  ;  30,  City  of  London  (Reception 
to  Prince  of  Wales).  *    Dec.  28-31,  "  At  my  Lord  Bath's."  " 

1499.  Jan.  1-13,  "  At  my  Lord  Bath's  "  ;"  18,  Westminster ;  19, 
Greenwich  ;  ^  27,  Westminster."     Feb.  2,  Sheen ;  i  6,  Greenwich  ; 

24,  Greenwich.  Mar.  5-21,  Greenwich ;  23-31,  Canterbury.'^ 
April  1-3,  Canterbury.     May  4,  Wanslead  ;  7,  Tower  of  London. 

1  Privy  Purse  Expenses.  -  Rot.  Pari. 

3  Ellis,  Letters,  i.  *  L.  and  P.  Henry  VII. 

*  Visit  to  the  Earl  of  Oxford. 

«  This  was  the  home  of  Sir  Tliomas  Kny\'et. 
'  This  was  the  home  of  Sir  Thomas  Boleyn. 

*  The  residence  of  Sir  Nicholas  Vaux. 

9  Visit  to  Sir  Reginald  Bray.  ^°  City  Chronicle. 

"   This  was  a  visit  to  Oliver  King.  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells. 
*'  Bergenroth,  Spanish  Calendar. 


ITINERARY  417 

June  15,  Sheen  ;  25,  Langley  ; '  26-27,  Abingdon  ; '  29,  Donning- 
ton;i    30,   Andover  ; '   31,  Winchester.^      Aug.   2,  Southampton; 

3,  Beaulieii  ;  9,  Isle  of  Wight ;  23,  Quarr  Abbey  ;  24,  Portchester. 
Sept.  2,  Bishop's  Waltham  ;  3-20,  Winchester;  23,  Frefolk ;  26, 
Basingstoke.  Oct.  9,  Windsor ;  24-£)ec.  7,  Westminster.*  Dec.  8, 
Wanstead  ;  14,  Elsing.* 

1500.  Jan.  13,  Sheen  ; »  14,  Hatfield.^  Feb.  5-10,  24,  West- 
minster.^ ^4prj7  7,  London  ;*  21,  Canterbury,  ilf ay  2-5,  Canterbury  ; 
3-June  9,  Calais.  June  16,  Dover,  Maidstone  ;  20,  Canterbury  ;  ^ 
22,  Westminster.*  Juh/  24,  Greenwich  ;  *  25,  Burnham  Abbey  ;  ' 
28,  Croydon.  Aug.  6,  Westminster  ; '  Sept.  5-25,  Woodstock  ;  28, 
Notley.  Oct.  1-6,  Notley ;  9,  Woodstock  ;  15-28,  Woodstock ; 
30,  Woodstock.  Nov.  4,  Woodstock.*  Dec.  5-11,  Woodstock  ; 
16,  Lanthony  Abbey  (co.  Glouc.)  ;  18,  Abingdon  ;  '  19-31,  Lanthony 
Abbey. 

1501.  Jan.  2,  5,  Lanthony  Abbey  ;  9-13,  Woodstock.  Mar.  21, 
Richmond.  April  10,  Eltham  ;  24-29,  Westminster.*  May  1, 
Tower  of  London  ;  9,  Westminster ;  *  29,  Lanthony  Abbey.     June 

4,  Lanthony  Abbey.  July  31,  Mile  End.'  Aug.  2,  Westminster  ;  * 
7,  14,  20,  21,  Lanthony  Abbey  ;  23,  Martyn  Abbey  ;  26,  Lanthony 
Abbey.  Sept.  25-Oct.  4,  Richmond.  Nov.  4-9,  Dogmersfield  ;  * 
10,  Baynard's  Castle ;3  12,  London;  14,  St.  Paul's  Cathedral 
(Marriage  of  Arthur  and  Katherine);  15,  Westminster;  16,  Bay- 
nard's Castle  ;  17-26,  Westminster;  28-Dec.  31,  Richmond.^ 

1502.  Jan.  14-25,  Richmond.*  Feb.  22-April  3,  May  27,  West- 
minster. June  22-28,  Westminster.'  July  20,  Woodstock.*  Aug. 
1-3,  Woodstock.  Sept.  24,  Woodstock  ;  ^  28-30,  Langley.'  Oct.  1, 
Woodstock  ;  18,  20,  Windsor  ;  30-A'oj;.  28,  Westminster.  Dec.  21, 
St.  Alban's.i 

^  Privy  Purse  Expenses. 

*  Rymer,  Foedera. 

•■'  Bergenroth,  Spanish  Calendar. 

*  Venetian  Calendar. 

5  L.  and  P.  Henry  VII. 
®  Funeral  of  Prince  Edmund. 

'  At  Mile  End  there  was  a  manor  house  belonging  to  the  Abbots 
of  St.  Osyth. 

*  Meeting  with  Katherine. 

'  After  the  burning  of  Sheen  the  new  palace  built  on  the  site  was 
named  Richmond. 

2   D 


418  HENRY    VII 

1503.  Feb.  2,  Barking;'  3-11,  Tower  of  London ^  (Death  of 
Queen  Elizabeth).  Mar.  30,  Baynard's  Castle.^  April  2,  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral  ;  8,  Baynard's  Castle  ;  10,  Westminster  ;  *  Windsor.* 
May  4,  Westminster.  June  23,  Richmond.  Jidy  1,  Eyton  ;  8,  Colly 
Weston  ;  13,  Westminster.  Sept.  1,  Tutbury;  4,  Ashlty  ; '  6,  Merivale 
Abbey  ;  7,  Astley;  23,  Speeu,  Banbury,  Langley.  Oct.  2,  Minster 
Lovell,  Abingdon  ;  17,  Cambridge. 

1504.  Jan.  25,  Westminster  (Opening  of  Seventh  Parliament). 
Aug.  15,  Nottingham  Castle.*  Feb.  S-March  23,  Westminster. 
April  23,  St.  Paul's;*  July  8,  Westminster;  10,  Richmond.  Aug. 
4,  Sheppey  Island;'  25,  Lewes;  28,  Alfold.^  Oct.  1,  Farnham 
Castle  ;«  ll-A"oy.  1,  Richmond.^     Nov.  20-Dec.  5,  Westminster. 

1505.  Jan.  12-20,  Wanstead.i  Feb.  24-28,  Croydon  ;  10,  15,  26, 
Canterbury.  April  12,  Chertsey  ;  ^  14,  Woking  ;  ^  20,  Chertsey  ;' 
21,  Richmond.'  May  1-25,  Richmond.  June  11,  Richmond.' 
July  28,  Otford  (co.  Kent)  ;  Windsor.  Atig.  3,  Charing  ;  4-28, 
Knole.  Sept.  13,  Cranbourne  ;  26-28,  Otford.  Oct.  15,  Reading  ; 
17,  Windsor. 

1506.  Jan.  3l-Feb.  12,  Windsor  ;»  Feb.  12-28,  Greenwich.  Mar. 
1-2,  Windsor.'  April  15,  Greenwich  ;  "  30,  Loudon.'  May  8,  Rich- 
mond ;  10-15,  Westminster  ; '  18,  Richmond.*  June  9,  12,  Otford. 
July  23,  Lambeth  ;  30,  Malshanger.  Aug.  1,  2,  Chichester  ;  12, 
Wanstead;  'Greenwich.'  Sept.  16,  Guildford.'^  Oct.  1-18,  Woking;' 
28,  Windsor.'     Nov.  5-Dec.  15,  Westminster.* 

1507-  Jan.  28,  Westminster.  March,  Richmond.'  April  7, 
Richmond;  11,  Westminster;'  15,  Richmond;'  20,  Woking.* 
J/cry  3,  Richmond  ;  *  11,  20,  Westminster.'  July  17,  Greenwich.' 
Aug.   21 -Sept.  9,   Woodstock.'"    Sept.   9,    15,  Langley  ;  ^^    16-29, 

^  Privy  Purse  Expenses. 

"^  City  Chronicle.  '  Leland,  Collectanea,  iv.  265. 

*  Rymer,  Fa&dera. 

^  King  of  Romans  installed  as  Knight  of  the  Garter. 

«  m^is.  Letters,  III.  (1),  117. 

'  Bergenroth,  Spanish  Calendar. 

*  This  belonged  to  the  Bishops  of  Winchester. 

9  Visit  of  Philip  of  Burgundy.     Memorials  of  Henry  VII.  (Rolls 
Ser.),  302  seq. 
*"   Venetian  Cal. 
1'  L.  and  P.  Henry  VII.,  i.  367 
i>  Andr6,  Vita. 


ITINERARY  419 

Woodstock.'  Oct.  1-5,  Winchester.'  Nov.  1,  Richmond  ;  11, 
Westminster ;  23-25,  Richmond  ;  25-Dec.  5,  Westminster.*  Dec. 
1.3-18,  Tower  of  Lundon  ; '  16,  Wanstead  ;  Tower  of  London;'* 
21-31.  Richmond." 

1508.  Jan.  1-7,  Richmond  ;2  7-10,  Lanthony  -,-11,  Chertsey  ; 
12,  13,  Woking  ;  20-31,  Richmond.  Feb.  1-J/or.  13,  Richmond  ; 
14,  At  Bishop  of  Bath's;  lo-May  10,  Greenwich.  May  11-15, 
Eltham  ;  15,  Greenwich.  June  14-29,  Greenwich;  30,  "At  Bishop 
of  Bath's."  July  1,  Mortlake  ;  3,  Wandsworth  ;  7,  Richmond, 
Langley ;  13,  Windsor,  Staines,  Wandsworth  ;  14,  Richmond  ;  20, 
Greenwich;  30,  Stratford.  Aug.  1-4,  Wanstead;  5,  Eltham;  9, 
Hatfield  ;  14,  Berking  ;  23,  Berwick  (co.  Essex).  Nov.  5-7,  Green- 
wich.    Dec.  21,  Richmond. 

1509.  Feb.  18,  Westminster.  March-April,  Richmond.  April 
21,  Richmond  (death  of  the  king). 

'  Bergenroth,  Spanish  Calendar.  2  Andre,  Vita. 


II 

THE   STORY   OF   PERKIN    WARBECK 

Bacon's  romantic  and  circumstantial  account  of 
Perkin  Warbeck's  conspiracy  long  held  the  field,  but 
within  the  last  twenty  years  it  has  been  replaced 
by  a  different  version  based  upon  Warbeck's  public 
confession/  and  supported  by  other  contemporary 
evidence  which  was  not  available  until  comparatively 
recently.  Dr.  Gairdner,  who  was  the  first  to  give  the 
revised  account.  ^  has  been  followed  by  Dr.  Busch  and 
other  writers.  Bacon's  account  of  the  plot  suffers 
from  the  fact  that  it  is  practically  an  elaborate 
embroidery  of  an  originally  doubtful  statement.  Fol- 
lowing Hall,  who  had  enlarged  a  statement  made 
by  Poly  dor  Vergil,^  he  makes  the  plot  begin  with 
Margaret  of  Burgundy,  and  says  that  she  set  up  the 
pretender  in  the  first  place.^  Perkin  Warbeck's  con- 
fession contradicts  this  story  of  the  origin  of  the  plot. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  contemporaries  thought 
Margaret  originated  the  whole  conspiracy,  and  Andr6's 
account  of  the  affair  supports  this  \iew ;  ^  but  the 
mistake  can  easily  be  accounted  for.     Margaret  was 

1  Hall,    Chronicle,    488-9 ;    City    Chronicle,    ed.    Kingsford,    pp. 
219-21. 
-  The  Story  of  Perkin  Warbeck  and  Henry  VII. 
'  Hall,  Chronicle,  462 ;  Polydor  Vergil,  Historice  AngliccB,  588. 
*  Bacon,  Works,  ed.  Spedding,  vi.  107. 
'  Andre,  Vita,  65-7,  72. 

420 


THE    STORY    OF   PERKIN   WARBECK     421 

Warbeck's  most  prominent  supporter  in  all  but  the 
preliminary  stages  of  the  plot.  It  was  not  until 
Warbeck  reached  her  court  that  he  became  a  pro- 
minent figure  in  Europe,  and  the  knowledge  of  her 
help  in  its  notorious  stages  and  of  the  value  of  her 
constant  championship  was  converted  into  a  theory 
that  she  knew  and  prompted  its  obscure  beginnings. 

The  fact  that  the  story  popularised  by  Bacon  con- 
flicted with  the  well-known  confession  of  Perkin 
Warbeck  was  explained  by  two  alternative  sugges- 
tions, the  first  being  that  the  confession  was  silent 
upon  Margaret's  share  in  the  conspiracy  because 
Henry  wished  to  spare  her.  But  this  conflicts  with 
evidence  that  was  not  available  when  it  was  made. 
Henry  showed  no  signs  of  wishing  to  spare  the 
duchess.  On  the  contrary,  he  made  Warbeck  repeat, 
in  the  presence  of  the  Spanish  ambassador,  his 
assertion  of  the  duchess's  later  complicity.^  The 
second  suggestion  is  that  the  whole  confession  was  a 
bogus  affair,  forged  by  Henrj'  and  circulated  for  his 
own  motives.  This  is  an  absolutely  gratuitous  sug- 
gestion without  a  shred  of  e\4dence  to  support  it,  and 
it  is  contradicted  by  the  first-rate  evidence  of  the  City 
Chronicle.  The  argument  that,  as  the  confession  was 
very  useful  to  Henry,  he  therefore  invented  it,  is  a 
curious  instance  of  mistrust  of  the  king,  throwing 
suspicion  on  all  his  actions.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  genuineness  of  the  confession  has  been  triumph- 
antly vindicated.  A  search  in  the  archives  of  Tournai 
has  brought  to  light  evidence  that  confirms  its  accu- 
racy in  the  most  trifling  details.-  Further,  its  general 
tenor  is  supported  by  two  of  Perkin's  own  letters 
that  have  survived,  one  written  to  his  mother,   the 

*  Bergenroth,  Cal.  of  Spanish  Papers,  pp.  185-7. 

*  Gairdner,  Perkin  Warbeck,  265-9. 


422  HENRY   VII 

other   to  Isabella  of  Spain,^  and   by  other  contem- 
porary evidence.^ 

Bacon's  suggestion  that  Warbeck  was  an  illegiti- 
mate son  of  Edward  IV.  must  also  be  criticised.^ 
It  is  based  upon  a  misconception,  originating  with 
Speed,  who  misunderstood  Bernard  Andre's  assertion 
that  Warbeck  was  brought  into  England  by  a  con- 
verted Jew  to  whom  Edward  had  been  godfather. 
Andre  further  relates  that  the  boy  had  been  brought 
up  at  the  court  of  Edward  IV.  by  this  Jew,  his  master, 
and  there  learnt  how  to  pose  as  the  young  Duke  of 
York.  This  account  is  not  found  elsewhere,  is  con- 
tradicted by  Warbeck's  confession,  conflicts  with  that 
given  by  Vergil  and  Hall,  and  is  probably  unreliable. 

1  Gairdner,  op.  cit.,  329;  Archceologia,  xxvii.  156-8,  199;  Ber- 
genroth.  No.  85. 

2  Letters  and  Papers,  Henry  VII.  (Rolls  Ser.),  ii.  294;  HalUwell, 
Letters,  i.  177. 

*  Bacon,  op.  cit.,  133. 


Ill 

THE   STAR   CHAMBER 

The  controversy  that  long  existed  as  to  the  origin 
of  the  Star  Chamber  may  now  be  regarded  as  settled. 
Many  points,  no  doubt,  are  still  obscure,  but  they 
are  not  of  the  first  importance,  and  the  decision  that 
most  modern  historians  have  arrived  at  is  supported 
by  evidence  obtained  from  a  study  of  selections  of 
Star  Chamber  cases. ^  The  view  prevalent  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  when  the  Star  Chamber  with 
all  its  sins  on  its  head  was  abolished  by  the  Long 
Parliament,  was  that  the  Star  Chamber  originated 
with  the  Act  of  1487,  that  its  authority  was  derived 
from  that  Act,  and  its  competence  limited  to  cases 
named  in  it.  Popular  indignation,  already  strong, 
was  inflamed  by  the  theory  that  the  court  had  far 
outrun  its  legal  powers.  This  view  has  now  been 
proved  to  be  unhistorical.  Like  "its  twin  sister 
the  Court  of  Chancery,"  the  Star  Chamber  was  an 
expression  in  a  specialised  form  of  the  judicial  autho- 
rity of  the  king  in  council.  Such  authority  was  of 
immemorial  prescriptive  origin,  and  from  the  reign 
of  Edward  III.  the  name  Star  Chamber  was  occa- 
sionally applied  to  the  council  when  sitting  in  its 
judicial   capacity.'-     The  famous  Act  of  Henry  VII. 

1  Star  Cliatnber  Cases  (ed.  Leadam),  Selden  Society;  (ed.  Brad- 
ford), Somerset  Rec.  Soc. 

-  Recent  researches  have  thrown  light  on  the  work  of  the  Star 
Chamber  in  1485  and   1-18(3.     The  Liber  Intrationum  (Harl.   MS., 

423 


424  HENRY   VII 

therefore  set  up  no  new  court,  and  did  not  touch  the 
judicial  powers  inherent  in  the  Star  Chamber.  It 
simply  gave  special  summary  powers  to  a  small  com- 
mittee of  the  council,  reinforced  it  with  outsiders 
possessing  legal  experience,  and  prepared  it  to  deal 
with  a  special  class  of  cases  that  menaced  the  peace 
and  safety  of  the  kingdom.  This  committee  con- 
tinued its  beneficent  work  all  through  the  reign  of 
Henry  VII. ;  its  small  size  and  wide  powers  rendering 
it  specially  swift  and  efhcient.  The  elasticity  of  the 
court  in  its  early  days  was  remarkable.  The 
members  nominated  in  1487  were  varied  by  later 
statutes,^  and  in  practice  convenience  rather  than 
form  dictated  the  membership.  The  theory  that  the 
chancellor,  treasurer,  and  lord  privy'  seal  were  the 
only  judges  has  been  replaced  by  the  view  that  all 
members  of  the  council  present  gave  sentence  as 
judges,  the  common  law  judges  acting  as  their 
assessors,-  In  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 
disorder  had  been  stamped  out,  the  work  of  the 
special  court  was  done,  and,  at  some  unascertained 
date  before  the  end  of  the  reign,  it  was  merged  into 
the  general  body  of  the  Star  Chamber.  The  larger 
body,  however,  clung  to  the  special  powers  conferred 
on  its  committee  by  statute,  especially  the  power  of 
examining  defendants  on  oath,  though  it  naturally 

No.  305,  Art.  2)  contains  notes  of  the  business  transacted  in  the  court 
during  these  two  years.  The  king  often  sat  there  in  person.  In 
1486  the  Star  Chamber  passed  a  resolution  concerning  rioting  by 
the  servants  of  noblemen  and  gentlemen  (Lansdowne  MSS.,  No.  83, 
Art.  72).     See  C.  L.  Scofield,  The  Star  Cliamber. 

^  By  11  Hen.  VII.,  cap.  25,  the  clerk  of  the  rolls  is  added,  and 
the  lord  privy  seal,  the  bishop,  and  the  temporal  lord  of  the  council 
are  omitted. 

*  Year  Book,  6  Hen.  VII.,  fo.  13.  See  Leadam,  Star  Chamber 
Cases,  Intro.  I.  xlvi.-xlvii.,  for  a  full  discussion  of  this  intricate 
question. 


THE    STAR   CHAMBER  425 

refused  to  confine  itself  to  the  cases  assigned  by 
Parliament  to  that  committee,  insisting  on  the  wide 
and  indeterminate  sphere  of  jurisdiction  of  its  parent 
the  council.  At  the  same  time,  the  Privy  Council 
was  exercising  similar  judicial  functions,  though  the 
distinction  between  it  and  the  Star  Chamber,  if  not 
great,  was  recognisable.  To  put  it  briefly,  though 
the  personnel  of  both  courts  was  almost  identical, 
the  Pri\n,'  Council  heard  the  more  definitely  political 
offences,  and  the  Star  Chamber  the  legal  offences; 
the  former  sat  in  private  and  at  any  time,  the  latter 
in  public  and  in  term  time  only  ;  the  latter  had  the 
help  of  legal  experts,  who  were  not  members  of  the 
council.!  The  Star  Chamber,  therefore,  was  not  of 
statutory  origin,  and  the  Act  of  1487  was  only  an 
episode  in  its  history.  It  was,  however,  a  very  im- 
portant episode  practically,  because  it  gave  the  court 
statutors'  authority  to  examine  A\-itnesses  on  oath  and 
issue  summary  writs,  and  historically  because  it  led 
to  confusion  as  to  the  origin  of  the  famous  court. 

1  AH  these  differences  brought  the  Star  Chamber  more  into  line 
with  the  ordinary  law  courts. 


IV 

HENRY  VII.    AND   JUANA   OF  CASTILE 

A  SERIES  of  documents  have  been  discovered  by 
Bergenroth  which  make  it  very  doubtful  whether 
Juana  of  Castile  ever  lost  her  reason.  He  suggests 
that  she  retained  her  sanity,  even  after  years  of 
barbarously  close  imprisonment,  and  that  she  was 
quite  sane  at  the  time  when  Henry  was  negotiating 
for  a  marriage  with  her.  His  view  is  that  Ferdinand 
deliberately  circulated  accounts  of  her  insanity,  him- 
self manufacturing  proof  of  it  in  order  to  prevent 
her  from  governing  Castile.  Bergenroth 's  researches 
make  it  clear  that  Ferdinand  did  not  inform  Henry 
of  the  alleged  nature  of  Juana's  malady  until  some 
months  after  the  negotiations  were  opened,  and 
that  as  soon  as  he  was  informed  of  it  he  withdrew 
his  suit.  Though  Henry  is  not  entirely  exonerated, 
the  blackest  stain  on  his  character  is  removed.^ 

The  extent  of  Juana's  affliction — if  it  existed  at 
this  early  date  —  was  certainly  exaggerated  by 
Ferdinand,  and  Henry  may  have  suspected,  when 
the  first  sinister  rumours  reached  him,  that  they 
were  deliberately  spread  abroad  by  Ferdinand  to 
prevent  Juana  from  governing  Castile.  \Mien 
she  visited  Henry's  court  in  1505  she  was  a  very 
handsome  woman,  without  a  trace  of  the  terrible 
malady  which  is  said  to  have  developed  so  rapidly 

'  Bergenroth,  CoZ.o/ -S/jan.  Papers,  Supplementary  Volume,  pp  41-62. 

4-26 


HENRY   VII.   AND   JUANA   OF   CASTILE     427 

after  her  husband's  death.  When  in  Flanders  she 
had  shown  great  })atience  in  a  difficult  situation. 
The  Venetian  ambassador  certainly  thought  her 
husband  and  father  were  plotting  against  her,  and 
that  they  spread  abroad  these  rumours  because  they 
had  found  her  very  intractable  and  reluctant  to 
surrender  her  rights.  In  June  1506  Ferdinand  and 
Philip  had  signed  a  treaty  pledging  themselves  to 
resist  any  attempt  of  Juana's  to  meddle  in  the  govern- 
ment of  Castile.  Later  Ferdinand  protested  against 
this  treaty,  using  language  quite  inconsistent  with 
his  daughter's  insanity.  He  spoke  of  helping  Juana 
to  recover  her  liberty  and  prerogatives,  and,  writing 
to  Katherine  just  after  Philip's  death,  he  spoke  of 
Juana's  "  retirement,"  not  her  incapacity,  as  the  reason 
for  her  not  sharing  in  the  government. 

This  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  Henry  made 
his  first  proposal  for  Juana's  hand,  and  Ferdinand 
wrote  in  reply  that  he  did  not  yet  know  whether 
his  daughter  was  inclined  to  marry  again»— not  a 
word  about  her  alleged  madness — but  that  if  she 
did  he  would  rather  she  married  Henr>^  than  any 
])rince  in  Christendom.  But  on  reflection,  Ferdi- 
nand saw  the  danger  of  allowing  a  marriage  between 
Juana  and  Henry,  and  he  seems  to  have  resolved  on 
reviving  for  his  own  purposes  the  dark  stories  he  and 
Philip  had  spread  about  before.  His  letter  to  de 
Puebla  has  been  lost,  but  on  15th  April  1507,  the  latter 
wrote  to  his  master  describing  an  interview  he  had 
had  with  the  king  at  Richmond.  This  letter,  which 
proves  that  de  Puebla  had  said  something  to  Henry 
throwing  doubt  upon  Juana's  state  of  mind,  is  im- 
portant as  the  first  evidence  of  Henry's  knowledge 
of  the  hints  that  Ferdinand  was  circulating.  De 
Puebla  reported  that  he  told  the  king  that  with  such 


428  HENRY   VII 

a  husband  as  Henry  she  would  recover  sooner  than 
with  any  other,  and  that  if  her  infirmity  proved 
incurable,  it  would  be  no  inconvenience  if  she  were 
to  live  in  England,  "  For  it  seems  to  me  that  they 
do  not  much  mind  her  infirmity, ^  since  I  told  them 
that  it  does  not  prevent  her  from  bearing  children." 
Nothing  is  here  or  elsewhere  \vritten  to  Henry  that 
the  queen  was  incurably  insane.  Katherine's  letters 
to  her  father,  giving  messages  from  Henry,  show  not 
the  slightest  indication  that  either  of  them  thought 
she  was  insane.  Two  letters  written  by  Ferdinand 
to  Katherine  in  June  do  not  allude  to  anj^  infirmity 
of  Juana's,  and  expressed  Ferdinand's  intention  of 
learning  his  daughter's  wishes  and  inclination  with 
regard  to  the  match.  He  showed  strange  anxiety 
that  there  should  be  no  negotiations  with  Juana 
directly  while  he  was  absent  from  Castile,  but  -wrote 
of  the  comfort  it  would  be  to  him  to  leave  his  daughter 
and  all  his  kingdoms  under  Henry's  care  and  pro- 
tection. In  September  negotiations  as  to  whether 
Henry's  proposed  bride  should  live  in  England  or 
Castile  were  going  on,  and  in  one  of  de  Puebla's 
letters  there  is  the  often-quoted  phrase,  "  The  council 
of  the  King  of  England  desires  extremely  that  this 
match  should  be  concluded  even  if  worse  things 
should  be  said  about  the  infirmity  {dolencia)  of  the 
daughter  of'  your  highness."  (Bergenroth  trans- 
lates "  dolencia "  as  insanity,  which  seems  to  be 
unusual.)  Katherine's  letters  to  Ferdinand  and  to 
Juana  make  it  incredible  that  she  could  have  been 
informed  of  her  sister's  alleged  madness,  and  it  would 
have  been  strange  if  Ferdinand  told  Henry  what 
he    had    concealed  from  Katherine.     She    wrote    to 

1  The    words   used    to    describe    her   state    are    "  enfermedad," 
"dolencia,"  which  are  to  be  translated  sickness,  infirmity. 


HENRY   VII.    AND   JUANA   OF   CASTILE      429 

Juana  in  October  telling  her  how  much  Henry  had 
been  attracted  by  her  when  she  visited  England, 
and  how  reluctant  he  had  been  to  let  her  go,  until 
his  council  adWsed  him,  "  as  he  is  a  very  passionate 
king,"  not  to  come  between  husband  and  wife.  She 
adds  some  elaborate  praise  of  Henry :  "  He  is  a 
prince  who  is  feared  and  esteemed  by  the  whole  of 
Christendom  on  account  of  his  wisdom,  vast  wealth, 
and  having  at  his  command  a  great  force  of  well- 
trained  troops.  Above  all  he  is  endowed  with  the 
highest  virtues.  If  Juana  marries  him  she  will  be- 
come the  most  illustrious  and  the  most  powerful 
queen  in  the  world."  Katherine  concludes  by  calling 
God  to  witness  that  the  letter  expressed  what  she 
genuinely  wished. 

Things  were  going  too  far  for  Ferdinand,  who 
seems  to  have  made  up  his  mind  to  forward  reports 
which  would  put  an  end  to  Henry's  suit  for  the 
heiress  of  Castile.  He  wrote  to  de  Puebla  telling 
him  that  Juana  still  took  about  with  her  the  corpse 
of  her  late  husband,  and  would  not  permit  it  to  be 
buried.  This  report  was  quite  effective ;  though  we 
have  no  actual  proof  that  Ferdinand's  story  was 
communicated  to  Henry,  there  is  a  strong  presump- 
tion that  it  was,  as  the  wording  of  the  King  of  Spain's 
letter  to  de  Puebla  suggests  that  he  intended  it  for 
transmission  to  the  king.  Something  certainly  occurred 
to  make  Henry  give  up  the  idea  of  a  marriage  ^\^th 
Juana  about  this  time.  He  had  sent  John  Stile 
to  Castile  with  letters  for  Juana  in  the  autumn  of 
1507 — the  tenor  of  Stile's  instructions  makes  it  in- 
credible that  Hemy  was  knowingly  wooing  a  mad 
woman — but  nothing  more  is  heard  of  the  proposal. 
It  was  reported  in  the  spring  of  1508  that  nothing 
more  would  be  heard  of  the  match.     Henry  seems  to 


430  HENRY   VII 

have  had  more  scruples  than  he  is  commonly  credited 
with. 

The  unhappy  Juana  was  kept  a  close  prisoner  as 
long  as  her  father  lived,  and  lived  her  life  of  misery 
forgotten  by  Europe  or  only  remembered  as  the 
"  mad  queen  of  Castile."  Bergenroth's  researches 
seem  to  prove  that  she  never  lost  her  reason,  in  spite 
of  shameful  brutality  and  neglect,  until  just  the  very 
end  of  her  life.  Her  obstinacy  and  dislike  of  religious 
observance  may  have  seemed  like  madness  to  the 
piety  of  Spain  and  of  the  Inquisition. 


i 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I.  Records 

Unfortunately  there  is  as  yet  no  printed  calendar  of  the 
Patent  and  Close  Rolls  of  the  reign.  The  two  volumes  of 
Materials  for  the  Reign  of  Henry  VII.  (ed.  Campbell,  Rolls 
Series)  supply  this  deficiency  for  the  years  1485  to  1488, 
The  same  collection  prints  extracts  from  the  Roll  of  the 
Great  Wardrobe  and  other  Wardrobe  Accounts.  There  is 
no  calendar  of  State  Papers  for  the  period.  The  nearest 
approach  to  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  two  volumes  of  Letters 
and  Papers  relating  to  the  Reigns  of  Richard  HI.  and 
Henry  VII.  (ed.  Gairdner,  Rolls  Series),  in  which  many  of 
the  king's  letters  to  his  ambassadors,  to  foreign  princes,  to 
the  Pope,  to  his  family,  servants,  and  subjects,  are  printed, 
together  with  many  other  diplomatic  documents.  The 
Appendix  to  the  second  volume  contains  brief  notes  from 
the  Patent  Rolls.  Other  royal  letters  may  be  found  in  the 
collections  edited  by  Ellis  and  by  Halliwell,  in  Letters  of  Royal 
Ladies  (ed.  Everett  Green),  and  in  Christchurch  Letters  (Cam- 
den Society).  The  Calendar  of  Spanish  Papers  (cd.  Bcrgen- 
roth,  vol.  1.  and  supplementary  volume),  and  the  Calendar 
of  Venetian  Papers  (ed.  Brown,  vol.  i.),  contain  a  mass  of 
diplomatic  correspondence  which  is  invaluable  for  the 
history  of  the  foreign  policy  of  the  reign.  Rymer's  Fcedera 
(vols,  xii.,  xiii.)  gives  the  text  of  treaties  and  other  diplo- 
matic documents.  The  Memorials  of  Henry  VII.  (ed. 
Gairdner,  Rolls  Series)  contains,  in  addition  to  Andre's 
works,  accounts  by  the   Richmond   Herald  of  several   em- 


482  HENRY   VII 

bassies  of  which  he  was  a  member  (including  the  well-known 
report  on  the  Queen  of  Naples),  and  of  the  visit  of  the  Arch- 
duke Philip,  together  with  a  report  by  John  Stile  of  his 
mission  to  Spain,  and  a  series  of  Spanish  despatches. 

None  of  the  general  accounts  of  the  reign  have  been 
printed,  and  very  few  have  been  calendared.  The  Privy 
Purse  Expenses,  printed  by  Bentley  in  his  Excerpta  Historica, 
is  an  extract  from,  rather  than  a  transcript  of,  the  king's 
private  accounts.  Some  of  the  queen's  expenditure  is 
revealed  in  the  Privy  Purse  Expenses  of  Elizabeth  of  York 
(ed.  Nicholas).  Oppenheim's  Naval  Accounts,  and  the  reports 
of  expenditure  by  Hattcliffe  in  Ireland  (printed  in  Letters 
and  Papers  of  Henry  VII.),  are  almost  the  only  other  books 
in  this  class. 

Little  has  been  done  towards  printing  the  legal  pro- 
ceedings of  the  reign.  The  Year  Book  of  Henry  VII. 
(ed.  1585),  the  calendar  of  the  Baga  de  Secretis  (vhich 
appears  in  the  Thirty-seventh  Report  of  the  Deputy-Keeper 
of  the  Public  Records),  the  collections  of  Star  Chamber  Cases, 
printed  by  the  Selden  Society,  the  Somerset  Record  Society, 
and  the  Yorks  Archaeological  Society,  and  the  Select  Cases  in 
the  Court  of  Requests  (Selden  Society),  are  the  chief  sources 
of  information. 

For  ecclesiastical  history,  Wilkins'  Concilia  (vol.  iii.)  prints 
the  records  of  the  proceedings  of  Convocation,  with  epis- 
copal letters,  and  so  on.  The  Register  of  Bishop  Fox 
(Camden  Society),  the  Visitation  of  Norwich,  and  the  Visitation 
of  Southwell,  are  also  useful. 

The  calendars  of  Carew  Papers  (especiall}-  the  Book  of 
Howth),  and  the  Calendar  of  Documents  relating  to  Scotland, 
are  the  authorities  for  the  king's  relations  with  Ireland  and 
Scotland.  The  Parliamentary  history  of  the  reign  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Rotuli  Parliamentorum  (Rolls  Series,  vol.  vi.), 
the  Statutes  of  the  Realm  (vol.  ii.),  and  the  Irish  Statutes. 
From  the  mass  of  published  borough  records  the  Letter  Books 
(ed.  Sharpe),  York  Records  (ed.  Davies),  Records  of  the  Borough 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  433 

of  Leicester  (cd.  Bateson),  and  Ricart's  Calendar  of  Bristol 
(ed.  Toulmin  Smith),  may  be  mentioned  as  specially  im- 
portant for  this  reign.  The  fVill  of  Henn/  VII.,  M-hich  has 
been  printed,  is  also  valuable. 

II.  Chronicles  and  Contemporary  Writers 

Bv  far  the  most  important  is  Polydor  Vergil's  famous 
work  Anglicce  Historice  Libri  XXVII.,  the  twenty -sixth  book 
of  which  contains  a  spirited  account  of  the  king's  reign, 
written  by  an  Italian  who  was  in  England  from  1502 
onwards.  He  made  a  magnificent  use  of  his  opportunities, 
and  the  greater  part  of  his  work,  together  with  his  estimate 
of  the  king's  character,  stands  unchallenged.  Bernard 
Andre's  work,  the  Vita  Henrici  Septimi  (Memorials  of 
Henry  VII.,  Rolls  Series),  is  of  much  less  value.  Though  a 
contemporary,  and,  by  his  position  as  poet  laureate,  closely 
connected  -with  the  court,  his  account  is  confused,  inaccurate, 
and  imaginative,  written  in  an  adulatory  strain,  and  inter- 
larded with  apocryphal  oratory.  The  earlier  part  of  his 
Annates  (the  account  of  the  years  1504-5)  is  the  usual 
rambling  panegyric,  the  latter  part  (the  history  of  the  years 
1507-8)  is  much  less  ambitious  and  more  useful,  containing 
much  valuable  information. 

Hall's  Chronicle  is  practically  a  translation  of  Polydor 
Vergil's  book,  but  contains  some  additional  matter.  The  City 
Chronicle,  printed  in  Chronicles  of  London  (ed.  C.  L.  Kingsford), 
Stow's  Chronicle,  the  Chronicle  of  Calais  (Camden  Society), 
the  Grey  Friars'  Chronicle  (Camden  Society)  Roger  Fabyan's 
Chronicle,  and  the  Cambrian  Register  are  all  valuable.  A 
ver}-  interesting  account  of  England,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  foreign  observer,  appears  in  the  Italian  Relation 
(Camden  Society).  In  Leland's  Collectanea  (vols.  iv.  and  v.) 
are  printed  contemporary  accounts  of  many  of  the  great 
ceremonies  of  the  reign.  This  may  be  supplemented  by  the 
Rutland  Papers,  the  Paston  Letters,  the  Trevelyan  Papers,  and 

2  E 


434  HENRY   VII 

the  Plumplon  Coriesj)onde7ice.  The  Cely  Papers  throw  light 
on  the  wool  trade,  and  the  Utopia  of  Sir  Thomas  More 
gives  a  picture  of  England  at  the  beginning  of  the  new 
centurj'.  The  Pilgrhnage  of  Sir  Richard  Guyldfurd  (Cantiden 
Society)  and  the  Hardwicke  Papers  are  of  minor  importance. 

Contemporary  ballads  which  throw  light  on  popular 
feeling  are  the  Sortg  of  the  Lady  Bessy  and  the  Ballad  of 
Bosworlh  Field  (printed  among  the  Percy  MSS.  (ed.  Hales 
and  Furnivall),  Dunbar's  Thistle  a7id  the  Rose,  Alexander 
Barclay's  Ship  of  Fools.  Les  Douze  Triomphes  de  Hairy  VIL, 
a  French  poem  attributed  to  Bernard  Andre,  is  printed  in 
the  Memorials  of  Henry  VU.  John  Fisher's  Sermon  on  the 
Death  of  Henry  VIL,  and  his  Month's  Mind  of  the  Lady 
Margaret  (printed  by  the  Early  English  Text  Society)  are 
valuable 

HI.  Later  Writers 

Bacon's  Life  of  Henry  VIL  occupies  an  unique  position 
both  for  its  unrivalled  style  and  for  the  fact  that  it  gives 
an  account  of  the  reign  which  was  copied  by  all  writers 
until  the  nineteenth  century. 

Other  works  of  importance  are  : — Dudley,  Tree  of  the 
Commomvealtk ;  Walter  Harris,  Hibemica ;  Herbert,  Life  of 
Henry  VIII.  ;  Hutton,  Battle  of  Bosworth  Field;  Pinkerton, 
History  of  Scotland  ;  Speed,  History  ofEtigland,  l6l  1  ;  Starkey, 
Dialogue;  Zurita,  Anales  de  la  Corona  de  Aragon,  I6IO. 

IV.   Modern  Writers 

Of  modern  writers,  by  far  the  most  important  are  Dr. 
Gairdner  and  Dr.  Busch. 

Dr.  Gairdner  in  his  Henry  VII.  (English  Statesmen  Series), 
his  Story  of  Perkin  Warbeck,  and  his  introductions  to  the 
Memorials  of  Henry  VIL,  and  to  the  Letters  and  Papers,  gave 
the  history  of  the  reign  in  the  light  of  modern  research  for 
the  first  time. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  435 

Dr.  Busch's  England  under  the  Tudors  (vol.  i.)  is  invaluable 
for  its  very  full  references,  notes,  and  criticisms  of  autho- 
rities. Dr.  Stubbs'  Lectures  on  Medieval  and  Modem  History 
contain  a  brilliant  sketch  of  the  reign. 

Other  works  of  importance  are : — Anderson,  Origin  of 
Commerce;  Archceologia  (vols,  xxvii.,  Iv.)  ;  Bagwell,  Ireland 
under  the  Tudors  ;  Biddle,  Memoirs  oj  Sebastian  Cabot ;  Bourne, 
English  Seamen  under  the  Tudors  ;  Clowes,  Royal  Navy  ;  Cooper, 
Margaret,  Countess  of  Richmond;  Cunningham,  Growth  of 
English  Industn/  and  Commerce ;  Dictionary  of  National  Biog- 
raphy;  English  Historical  Review  (vols,  iii.,  vi.,  viii.,  xiv.,  xxii., 
xxiv.);  Fisher,  Early  Tudors  (Political  History  of  England); 
Fortescue,  History  of  British  Army  ;  Froudc,  Life  and  Times  of 
Erasmus  ;  Gairdner,  Cambridge  Modern  History  (vol.  i.  ch.  24); 
Gasquet,  Eve  of  the  Reformation ;  Gross,  Gild  Merchant ; 
Halsted,  Life  of  Margaret  Beaufort ;  Hakluyt,  Voyages ; 
Hallam,  Constitutional  History  ;  Hudson,  iS/flr  Chaviber  ;  Innes, 
Twelve  Tudor  Statesmen;  Ives,  Select  Papers;  Maitland,  Lec- 
tures on  Constitutional  History ;  Molinet,  Chroniques,  147h— 
1566;  Mullinger,  University  of  Cambridge ;  Nichols,  Epistles 
of  Erasmus ;  Pollard,  Factors  in  Modem  History;  Reeves, 
History  of  English  Law  (ed.  Finlason) ;  Thorold  Rogers, 
History  of  Agriculture  and  Prices ;  Scofield,  Star  Chamber ; 
Seebohm,  Oxford  Reformers;  Smith,  History  of  Waterford ; 
Stephen,  History  of  Criminal  Law ;  Stubbs,  Constitutional 
History  ;  Traill,  Social  England  (vol.  ii.);  Tytler,  History  of 
Scotland  ;  Ware,  Annates. 


INDEX 


Abduction  of  heiresses,  257 
Abingdon,  54,  411,  413-4,  416-8 
Abingdon,  abbey,  412 
Abingdon,  abbot,  75,  112 
Acton  Turville,  415 
Agriculture,  185-7 
Agriculture  a7id   Prices,  History 

\f,  435 
Aids,  272,  274 
Ainsworth,  Henry,  84 
Albany,  Duke  of,  137 
Albret,  Lord  d',  73,  82,  92,  94, 

100 
Alcock,   John,  Bp.  of   Ely,  see 

Ely 
Alexander  VI.,  Pope,  125,  127, 

229-30,  140-1,  259,  330 
Alfonzo,  King  of  Naples,  (1494), 

12G 
Aliens,  subsidy  from,  68 
Alnwick,  415 
Alresford,  415,  418 
Amboise,  Cardinal  d',  367 
America,  North,  320,  323-4 
Amersham,  311 
Anales  de  la  Corona  de  Aragon, 

434 
Anderson,  Adam,  435 
Andover,  417 
Andre,    Bernard,    34,  313,   431, 

433-4 
Angouleme,     Margaret    of,    see 

Margaret 
Angus,  Earl  of,  1^4,  145 
Anne     (Nevil,     of     Warwick), 

Que  en  of  England,  14 
Anne  (of   Brittany),   Queen  of 


437 


France,  7,  72-3,   77-8,  82-5, 
92,  94,  96-7,  99-100,   102-3, 
104  H.,  203 
Anne  (of   Beaujeu),   Regent  of 

France,  13,  72 
Antwerp,  105,  118,  165,  168-9, 

172,  174,  227,  233-4 
Aragon,  see   Spain,  and   Ferdi- 
nand  (of   Aragon),   King   of 
Spain 
Architecture,  314-5 
Armagh,  Archbp.  of,  294 
Army,  43,  283-4  ;  bibliography, 

435 
Arran,  Earl  of,  364 
Art,  314 

Arthur,  Prince  of  Wales,  birth, 
56-7  ;  created  Prince  of  Wales, 
413    n.,   death,   230-1,   387  ; 
marriage,  79-82,  90,  102,  136, 
204-9,   211-2,    216-25,    328; 
regent,  106 
Artillery,  283-4,  304 
Arundel,  413 
Ashbv,  418 
Ashford,  413 
Astley,  418 

Astwood, ,  123,  212 

Atherstone,  19 

Attainders,  47-9,  67-8,  123,  255 
Attwater,  John,  see  Walter,  John 
Audley,  Jas.  Touchet,  Lord,  148, 

150-51 
Ayala,  Pedro  de,  144-5,  151-2, 

154^6,  201,209,  321,369 
Aylesbury,  416 
Aynsworth, ,  79 


438 


INDEX 


Ayton,  castle,  153 
Ay  ton,  treaty  of,  154 

Bacon,  Francis,  Lord  Verulam, 

434 
Baga  lie  Secretis,  432 
Bagwell,  Richard,  435 
Bail,  257 

Banbury,  414-6,  418 
Bangor,  Bp.  of,  297 
Barcelona,  treaty  of,  119 
Barclay,  Alex.,  434 
Barking,  418 
Basing.itoke,  417 
Bath,  415-6;  Prior  of,  310 
Bath,  Order  of  the,  40 
Bath,    Philibert    de    Shaunde, 

Earl  of,  15,  42,  416 
Bath  and  Wells,  Bp.  of,  416  n., 

419 
Battle,  413 
Baynard's  Castle  (London),  315, 

417-8 
Beaufort,    Marg.,   see    Margaret 

(Beaufort)  Countess  of  Rich- 
mond and  Derby 
Beaulieu,  157,  415,  417 
Beaumont,  John,  68 
Bedford,  Duke  of,  41, 43,  54,  64, 

105,  291,  297 
Beggars,  265 
Belknap,  Edward,  44 
Benefit  of  clergj-,  26,  257-8 
Benevolences,  101,  134,  255,  276 
Berkeley,  Sir  William,  36 
Berking,  419 
Bermondsey  Abbey,  60 
Berwick  (Essex),  419 
Berwick     (on     Tweed),      142  ; 

Castle,  153^,  280 
Bewdley,  211,  415 
Bewley,  415,  417 
Bibliography,  431-5 
Biddle,  Richard,  435 
Birmingham,  55,  411 
Bisham,  415 
Bisham  Abbey,  215 


Blackheath,  416;  battle,  150 

Blickling,  416 

Blois,  treaty  of,  341  n. 

Blount,  Jas.,  12  ;  Will.,  44 

Bodmin,  156 

Bodrugan,  Sir  Henry,  59,  68 

Bodyguard,  see  Yeoman  of  the 

Guard 
Boleyn,  Sir  Thos.,  416  n. 
Bordefeld  (Broadfield),  416 
Bosworth,  Market,  19 
Bosworth  Field,  battle  of,  19-22, 

411;  bibliography,  434 
Bothwell,  Lord,  134-5, 144,  226  w. 
Boulogne,  97,  107,  109 
Bourbon,  Duke  of,  136 
Bourchier,  Sir  Chas.,  13  ;  Hen., 

Earl  of  Essex,  see  Essex  ;  Sir 

John,  9,  44,  51  ;    Sir  Thos., 

19 
Bourke,  Lord,  295 
Bourne,  Henry  Fox,  435 
Brackenbury,  Sir  Rob.,  22 
Brampton,  Sir  Edw.,  114 
Brandon,  Thos.,  44,  62  n.  ;   Sir 

Thos.,  234,  372  ;  Will.,  22 
Brandon  Ferrv,  41 1 
Bray,  Sir  Reginald,  15,  43,  148, 

238,  416  «.  ;  Richard,  6 
Brazil,  319 
Brecknock,  8 
Brest,  105 
Bridgwater,  416 
Bristol,   56,    148,    173,   319-23, 

411  414-5  433 
Brittany,  4,  72-8,  82-7,  91-103, 

105,  107-9,  203 
Brittany,  Anne  of,  see  Anne  (of 

Brittany),  Queen  of  France 
Brittany,  Francis,   Duke  of,  4, 

7-11,^72-7 
Broke,  415 
Broughton,  Sir  Thos.,  61,  63,  65, 

68 
Bruges,  168,  174 
Buckenham  Castle  (Norf.),  416 
Buckingham,  414,  416 


INDEX 


439 


Buckingham,     Edw.     Stafford, 

Duke  of,  42,  82.  214,  246-7, 

372-3,  380 
Henry  Stafford,  Duke  of,  2, 

5-8,  25 
Burgh,  Hubert,  115 
Burgundv,  73,  83,  92,  204  ;  trade 

with,  119,  165-7,  176 
Marg.,  Dowager  Duchess  of, 

see  Margaret 
Philip,  Duke  of,  see  Philip, 

Archduke 
Bumhani  Abbey,  417 
Burton,  415 
Burv,  416 
BurV    St.    Edmunds,   62,    413; 

Abbey,  412 
Busch,  Dr.,  434-5 
Butler,  Thos.,  Earl  of  Ormond, 

see  Ormond  ;  family,  289,  291, 

296,  298 

Cabot,  John,  319-22;  Sebastian, 
198,  322,  435 

Cadwallader,  17-8,  56,  384 

Calais,  51,  92-3,  96-8,  106-7, 
118,  165-6,  168-9,  183  n..  218, 
414,  417  ;  Chronicle  of,  433 

Calendar  of  Documents  relating  to 
Scotland,  432 

Calendar  of  Spanish  Papers,  431 

Calendar  of  Venetian  Papers,  431 

Cambrai,  League  of,  367-8 

Cambrian  Register,  433 

Cambridge,  53,  62,  274  n.,  412, 
418;  colleges  founded,  306 

Canterbury,  311,  411-18  ;  Arch- 
bishop's palace  at  Charing, 
413  n. 

Canterbury,  John  Morton, 
Archbp.'  of  (Bp.  of  Ely),  ac- 
count of,  237-8  ;  Archbp.  of 
Canterbury,  43 ;  at  coronation 
of  Henry  VII.,  41  ;  Cornish 
rebellion  aimed  at,  148  ;  Duke 
of  Buckingham  influenced, 
5 ;      Henry     of     Richmond 


warned,  11  ;  monastic  reform 
pressed,  309-10  ;  rebellion 
against  Rich.  III.  fostered,  9  ; 
speeches  in  Pari.,  67,  147 

Canterbury,  Will.  Warhani, 
Archbp.  of,  227,  309,  325 

Capell,  William,  276  n. 

Cardigan,  16 

Carevo  Papers,  432 

Carlisle  Castle,  280 

Carlow  Castle,  298 

Carmarthen,  church,  391  n. 

Carmeliano,  Pet.,  312,  368 

Carvel  of  Eu,  ship,  282  n. 

Castello,  Adrian  de,  312 

Castile,  78,  334-5,  337, 348,  351, 
356,  365,  367 

Castles,  37 

Cattle,  ]  87 

Caxton,  William,  317 

Cecily  (of  York),  57,  99 

Cely  Papers,  434 

Cerdagne,  80-3,  90,  99  n.,  110 

Chambre,  John  a,  87-8 

Chandew,  Lord,  see  Bath,  Phili- 
bert  Shaunde,  Earl  of 

Charing,  413,  416,  418 

Charles  VIII.,  King  of  France, 
Breton  war,  84, 95,98  n.,  100-1, 
103;  death,  202-3;  Flemish 
rebels'"  relations  with,  94 ; 
Italian  wars,  125-7,  140,  180, 
202;  marriage,  103;  negotia- 
tions with  England  (1496), 
136-7  :  Richmond  (Hen.  VII.) 
assisted  by,  9,  12-3,  15,  32  ; 
treaties  with  England  and 
Spain  (1492),  107-11;  War- 
beck  in  relation  to,  113,  115, 
121,  125,  137 

Charles  (V.,  Roman  Emperor), 
Archduke,  349,  353,  355, 
365-6 

Chertsey,  411-2,  418-9  ;  mon- 
astery, 411,  415 

Chesney,  Sir  John,  43,  57,  91 

Chester,  80,  204, 415  ;  Castle,  270 


440 


INDEX 


Chesterford,  412 

Chichester,  412,  418 

Chipping  Norton,  415 

Chi'istchurch,  415 

Christchurch  Monastery  (South- 
wark),  411 

Church  of  England,  The,  31,  37, 
249,  307-12,  432  ;  grants  and 
subsidies,  86,  134,  147  ;  Papal 
tax,  230 

Cinque  Ports,  165 

Cirencester,  416  ;  abbey,  415 

City  Chronicle,  433 

Clarence,  George,  Duke  of,  2, 
291 

Claude  of  France,  Princess, 
365 

Cleymound,  Robert,  212-3 

Clifford,  Sir  Robert,  122-4  ■ 

Cloth  trade,  105,  165-71,  177, 
182-5 

Clowes,  W.  L.,  435 

Coinage,  see  currency 

Coiners,  191 

Colchester,  53,  412-3 

Colet,  John,  307,  309 

Collectanea,  433 

Colly  Weston,  236,  414-6,  418 

Colonisation,  323 

Columbus,  Earth.,  318  ;  Chris., 
318-9 

Combermere  Abbey,  415 

Commerce,  27,  161-95  ;  biblio- 
graphy, 435  ;  royal  specula- 
tions, 275  ;  Star  Chamber's 
jurisdiction,  262 

Commons,  House  of,  253-4 

Concarneau,  92,  94,  102 

Concilia,  432 

Concordia,  Lionel,  Bp.  of,  96-7 

Concressault,  137 

Conway,  Sir  Hugh,  6,  35  n.,  44, 
53  n.,  297-8 

Cooper,  C.  H.,  435 

Corfe  Castle,  415 

Cork,  113,  115,  131,  155,  303-4 

Corn,  187 


Cornbury,  416 

Cornwall,  80,  204  ;  duchy,  47  ; 

rebellions,  147-52,  155-8 
Coronation,  40-3,  68-9 
Council,  43-5 
Council,  Great,  101,  146 
Courtenay,  Sir  Edw.,  see  Devon, 

Edw.     Courtenay,    Earl    of ; 

Lord  William,  228 
Coventry,    62,  64,  371,  392  71., 

412,  414 
Cranbourne,  418 

Cressyner, ,  123 

Crime,  26-7,  256-60 
Criminal  appeals,  266-7 
Croft,  412 
Crown,  defects  and  stops  in  the 

blood    annulled    by,    48    n.  ; 

increase   in   power   of,  under 

Henry  VII.,  248-50  ;  king  de 

facto,  133  ;  succession  to,  28- 

31,  45-7 
Crown  lands,  47,  270-2,  277 
Croydon,  411-2,416-8 
Crusade,  228-30,  362-3 
Cunningham,  Dr.,  435 
Currency,  190-1 
Curzon,  Sir  Robert,  226 
Customs,  37,  166,  183,  272 

Dale,  16 

Dantzig,  trade  with,  172,  174 

Dartford,  414,  416 

Daubenev,  Lord,  43,  93,  98,  145, 

149-50,    157;    Sir    Giles,    9; 

William,  123 
Deal,  127 

Dego,  the  jester,  383 
Denmark,  139,  353  ;  trade  with, 

173 
Derby,  415 
Derby,   Thos.    Stanlev,  Earl  of 

(Lord  Stanlev),  4,  10,  17-22, 

35  n.,  40-1,  43,  415  n. 
Dereham,  East,  411 
Desmond,   Earl   of,  115,  155-6, 

295,  298,  300,  305 


INDEX 


441 


Devon,  Edward  Courtenav,  Earl  ! 

of,  9,  40,  43,  64 
Dialogue,  434 
Dick,  the  fool,  383 
Diplomatic  service,  316 
Discovery,  voyages  of,  317-24 
Dixmude,  92-3 
Docks,  dry,  283 
Dogmersfield,  222,  417 
Dominicans'  Provincial  arrested, 

123 
Doncaster,  53,  55,  411 
Donnington,  417 
Dorset,   Marquis   of,  9,   13,  44, 

51,  62 ;  Marchioness  of,  57 
Douze  Triomphes  de  Henry  VII., 

Les  434 
Dover,  106,  412,  414,  417 
Downham,  411 
Drogheda,  293,  298 
Drummond,  Ladv  Marg.,  225-6 
Drurv,  Robert,  253 
Dublin,  63,  292-3 
Dublin,  Walter,  A  rchbp.  of,  295-6 
Dudley,  Edm.,  44,  253,  276-8, 

371«.,434 
Dunbar,  WilUam,  434 
Durham,  412 
Durham,  county  of,  subsidy  of 

1489,  87-8 
Durham,  Richard   Fox,  Bp.  of, 

152-3,  288 
Dynhara,  Lord,  43 

Early  Tudor s,  435 

Edgcote,  416 

Edgecombe,  Pet.,  44  ;  Sir  Rich., 

9,  35  n.,  43,  75,  84,  92,  293-4 
Edmund,    Prince,    birth,    416; 

death,  219  n.  ;  funeral,  417  n. 
Edward  IV.,  4,  422 
Edward  V.,  116 
Edward  VI.,  title  of  Lambert 

Simnel,  see  Simnel 
Edward,  Prince  of  "Wales,  3 
Egremont,    Lord,     137-8:     Sir 

John,  88 


Eleanor,  daughter  of  Archduke 

Philip,  228,  333,  339 
Elizabeth  (of  York),  Queen,  63, 
67,  376,  382  ;  account  of,  386- 
9 ;  children,  see  Arthur, 
Prince  of  Wales  :  Edmund, 
Prince :  Henry,  Prince  of 
Wales :  Margaret,  Queen  of 
Scotland  :  Mary,  Princess ; 
claims  to  the  crown  ignored, 
47;  coronation,  41  7i.,  57,  68-9; 
death,  235-6;  imprisonment, 
33-4  ;  marriage,  7,  9,  14-5,  31, 
35,  50-2,  312  ;  Privy  Purse 
Expenses,  432  ;  Queen  Dowa- 
gei"'s  lands  granted  to,  60  n., 
68  71. ;  right  of  action,  68  n. 

Elizabeth    (Woodville),    Queen, 
6,  10,  13,  60-1,  386 

Elsine,  416-7 

Eltham,  413,  415,  417,  419 

Ely,  411,  413 

— '—,  John  Alcock,  Bp.  of,  306 

,  John  Morton,  Bp.  of,  see 

Canterbury,     John     Morton, 
Archbp.  of 

Place,  415 

Employment,  regulation  of,  193 

Empson,  Sir  Richard,  253,  272, 
276-8,  371  n. 

Enclosures,  187  n.,  262 

Enfield  Chase,  383,  413  n. 

England  under  the  Tudors,  435 

English  Seamen  under  the  Tudors, 
435 

Erasmus,  309,  313,  435 

Esher,  412 

Esquerdes,  Lord  d',  92-3,  107 

Essex,  Earl  of,  41,  44,  214 

Estrada,  Duke  of,  232,  333 

Estrete,  John,  294 

Etaples,  treaty  of,  109,  111,  203 

Eve  of  the  Reformation,  435 

Evesham,  415 

Ewelme,  414-5  ;  manor,  413 

Excommunication,  52  n. 

Exeter,  156,  158,  254  n.,  416 


442 


INDEX 


Exeter,  Rich.  Fox,  Bp.  of,  9,  12, 

22  n.,  36,  41,  43 
Eyton,  418 

Fabyan,  Roger,  433 

Factors  in  Modern  History,  435 

Falmouth,  344 

Farnham,  nr.  Guildford,  148 

Farnham  Castle,  418 

Faversham  Abbey,  415-6 

Ferdinand  (of  Aragon),  King  of 
Spain,  Breton  marriage  for 
Dou  Juan  suggested,  96 ; 
Castilian  policv,  334-5,  337, 
348-9,  351-2,  356,  365,  367  ; 
Columbus  patronised,  318-9  ; 
Crusade  suggested  to,  362 ; 
French  alliance,  98  «.,  110, 
119;  Holy  League,  125,  128, 
135,  204 ;  Juana's  affliction 
exaggerated,  351-2,  426 ; 
League  of  Cambrai,  367 ; 
mairiage  negotiations  for 
Katherine  of  Aragon,  79-83, 
89-91, 102,  119,  135,  199,  201, 
204-7,  217-9.  231-2,  328-35, 
350,  354,  356-8,  369-70; 
Milanese  policy,  229  ;  per- 
sonal appearance,  337-8 ; 
position  after  Isabella's  death, 
334-5,  337;  Roussillon  at- 
tacked, 96 ;  Roussillon  and  | 
Cerdagne  recovered,  110 ;  | 
second  marriage,  341-2 ; 
Warbeck  in  relation  to,  128, 
152,  205,  207 

Fernandez,  Diego,  358-61 

Ferrara,  314 

Ferrers,  Lord,  22,  49 

Finance,  account  of,  269-82  ; 
benevolences,see  Benevolences ;  : 
commercial  policv  in  relation  I 
to,  162-3,  189-92;  crown  j 
lands,  see  Crown  lands  ;  cus-  [ 
toms,  see  Customs  ;  fines  for  I 
Warbeck  rebellion,  158  ; 
French    tribute,    109 ;    grant  ' 


by  council  of  1497,  146  ;  Irish, 
300-3;  loans,  146-7,  275; 
Parliamentary  grants,  46,  68, 
86-9,  97,  102,  147  ;  purvey- 
ance, 47,  280;  tonnage  and 
poundage,  46,  272  ;  treasure, 
189-90 

Fines  (amercements),  277-8 

Fines,  statute  of,  260 

Fisher,  John,  Bp.  of  Rochester, 
see  Rochester ;  .  435 

Fisheries,  167,  187,  320-2 

Fitzgerald,  Jas.,  289  ;  Thomas, 
63,  65,  292 

Fitzwalter,  Lord,  123,  377 

FitzWilliam,  Sir  Thomas,  253 

Flammock,  Thos.,  147,  150 

Flanders,  72-3  78,  92-3,  98, 
105,  118,  127,  353;  trade 
with,  118,  165-8,  170,  173, 
184 

Flint  Castle,  270 

Florence,  126  ;  trade  with,  178 

Ftedera  (Rymer's),  see  Rymer's 
Fcedera 

Foix,  Germaine  de,  see  Germaine, 
Queen  of  Spain 

Fontarabia,  94 

Foreign  affairs,  27,  70-111,  117- 
21,  125-30,  134-42,  196-239, 
326-70 

Forests,  37,  256-7 

Forgery,  262 

Fortescue, ,  435 

Fowlers,  414 

Fox,  Richard,  Bp.  of  Exeter,  see 
Exeter  ;  Bp.  of  Durham,  see 
Durham 

France,  72-7,  81-5,  90-111,  119, 
121,  125-7,  136-41,  202^, 
218,  341,  353,  366-9  ;  trade 
with,  180-1 

Franciscans,  391  n. 

Frankfort,  treaty  of,  94,  98 

Frederick  III.,  Emperor,  120 

Frefolk,  417 

Froude,  James  Anthony,  435 


INDEX 


448 


Frutze,  Benedict,  38  n. 

Fuensalida, ,  sec  Membrilla 

Fulham,  •412 
Fyneux,  John,  44 

Gairdner,  Dr.,  434-5 
Gascony,  84  ;  trade  with,  164 
Gasquet,  Doni,  435 
Gaunt,   John    of,  see   John    of 

Gaunt 
Geraldines,  289,  291-2,  296,  298, 

301 
Germaine   (de  Foix),  Queen  of 

Spain,  341-2 
German  mercenaries,  63-4,  284 
Germany,    trade    with,    171-2, 

174-6 
Gigli,  Giovanni  (John),  Bp.  of 

Worcester,      see     Worcester ; 

Silvestro,  312 
Gilds,  188-9,  262,  435 
Glastonbury,  416 
Gloucester,'56,  411,  414 

,  Humphrey.  Duke  of,  306 

Gold,  export  of,' 100 

Gordon,  Lady  Katherine,  132-3, 

152,  158-9 
Gorma.=;ton,  Lord,  297 
Granada,  100,  103 
Greek,  306 
Greenwich,    57,    68,    283,   366, 

411-9 
Grey  Friars'  Cltronide,  433 
Griffith,  Richard,  16 
Grocyn,  William,  306 
Gross,  Charle.s,  435 
Grossaert  (Mabuse),  Jau,  314 
Growth  of  English  Industry  and 

Commerce,  435 
Queldres,      Gelderland,      Duke 

Charles  of,    169,    326-7.  342, 

347,  349,  364,  366-7 
Guienne,  duchy  of,  41-2,  82,  90, 

92,  95  n.,  109,  232,  329  ;  trade 

with,  164 
Guildford,    40,    149,   411,    415, 

418 


Guildford,  Sir  Richard,  36,  43, 

391  ?i.,  434 
Guingamp,  91 
Guisnes,  93,  228 
Gunpowder,  385 

Hall's  Chronicle,  433 

Halsted,  C.  A.,  435 

Hammes,  12,  93 

Hansard  merchants,  171-6,  325 

Harboiough,  413 

Hardwicke  Papers,  434 

Harfleur,  13,  15 

Harington,  Jas.,  68  ;  Thos.,  68 

Harlech  Castle,  2-3 

Harling,  East,  412 

Harris,  Walter,  434 

Harrowden,  416 

Hasely, ,  Dean  of  Warwick, 

see  Warwick 

Hatfield,  417,  419 

Hattcliflfe,  William,  300,  432 

Hatten,  326 

Haverfordwest,  16 

Havering,  416 

Hayes,  John,  113,  115 

Haytesbury,  415 

Hedingham,  Castle,  416 

Hemson,  Richard,  44 

Henry  VI.,  3,  47,  392 

Henry  VII.,  arms,  2  n.,  34  n., 
41  ;  attainder,  48  ;  beginning 
of  reign,  date,  48-9  ;  biblio- 
graphy, 431-5  ;  in  Brittany, 
4-11;  character,  32-3,  376- 
403';  children,  -see  Arthur, 
Prince  of  Wales,  Edmund, 
Prince,  Henry,  Prince  of 
Wales,  Margaret,  Queen  of 
Scotland,  Mary,  Princess ; 
commercial  policy,  161-95  ; 
conspiracy  to  make  king  and 
revolt  in  favour  of,  4-22  ; 
coronation,  40-2  ;  death,  370  ; 
descent,  2,  28-9  ;  financial 
policy,  269-81 ;  foreign  policy, 
70-111,  117-21,  125-30,  134- 


444 


INDEX 


42,  196-209,  217-39,  326-70 ; 
funeral,  371-3  ;  illness,  352, 
365 ;  importance  of  reign, 
374-6,  404-7 ;  itinerary, 
411-9  ;  legislation,  256-69  ; 
marriage,  4-5,  7,  9,  14,  31,  35, 
50-2,  386-8  ;  marriage  (2nd) 
schemes,  328,  332,  335-7,  339, 
351-5  ;  personal  appearance, 
403-4 ;  personal  influence, 
285-8  ;  plot  to  seize,  54  n,  ; 
political  ideals,  240-56 ; 
renaissance  encouraged,  312- 
5  ;  seer  consulted,  210  ;  title 
to  the  throne,  1,  28-31,  46-7  ; 
tomb,  313-4,  373,  392;  will, 
370-1,  433 

Emry  VII.  (Gairdner),  434 

Henry  (VIII.),  Prince  of  Wales, 
Duke  of  York,  birth  and  title, 
122,  413,  415  ;  character,  231, 
389  ;  created  Prince  of  Wales, 
231 ;  education,  313,  331  ; 
Golden  Fleece  conferred  on, 
345  ;  Lord  -  Lieutenant  of 
Ireland,  297  ;  marriage 
schemes,  228,  232,  333,  338-9, 
354,  356,  367,  370  ;  personal 
appearance,  353,  389 

Henry  Grace  d  Dieu,  man-of 
war,  see  Regent,  TJie 

Herbert,  Edward,  Lord,  434  ; 
William,  Lord,  3  ;  Sir  Chas. 
Somerset,  Lord,  44,  76,  227, 
339  n. 

Herbert,  Maud,  3 ;  Sir  Walter,  14 

Hereford,  56 

Heresy,  311 

Herough,  Peter,  416 

Hertford,  88,  416  ;  Castle,  413 

Heviugham  Castle,  412 

Hibernica,  434 

Hides,  subsidy  on,  46 

Hi^h  treason,  54 

Historue  Anglicoe  Libri,  see  Lihri 
Anglicce  Historic^ 

Holt  Castle,  416 


Holy  League  (1495),  125,  127, 

129,  135-42,  202,  204 
Horses,  187 
Horsham,  413 
Horsham,  New,  274  «.. 
Hounslow  Heath,  149 
Household,  royal,  38,  47,  280, 

380-1 
Howard,  Sir  Edw.,  372  ;  Thos., 

Earl  of  Surrey,  see  Surrey 
Howth,  Book  of,  432 
Howth,  Lord  of,  63,  66,  296-7 
Hubert,  James,  44 
Hudson,  William,  435 
Hume,  Lord,  145 
Hungary,  100,  103 
Hungerford,  Sir  Walter,  19 
Hunsdon,  manor,  125 
Hunting,  37-8,  256-7 
Huntingdon,  53,  62,  412,  416 
Hussey,  Dr.,  Archd.  of  London, 

see  London 
Hutton, ,  7  ;  ,  434 

Iceland,  trade  with,  173 

Imola,  James,  Bp.  of,  51 

Imst  in  the  Tyrol,  227 

India,  new  route  to,  319 

Industry,  182-95 

Informers,  255,  278,  286-7 

Inglefield,  Thomas,  253 

Innes,  A.  D.,  435 

Innocent  VIII.,  Pope,  259 

Inqui.«ition,  Spanish,  78 

Intercursus  Magnus,  167  n. 

Ireland,  27,  289-305,  432; 
finance,  300;  judges,  299; 
Lord- Deputy,  290  ;  Lord- 
Lieutenant,  290  ;  Parliament, 
291,  298-9,  304;  Simnel's 
rebellion,  58,  62-3,  66,  292; 
Viceroy,  see  above,  Lord- 
Lieutenant  ;  Warbeck  re- 
bellion, 112-3,  128,  130-1, 
155-6,  298,  303-4 

Ireland  under  the  Tiidors,  435 

Isabella  (of  Castile),  Queen   of 


INDEX 


445 


Spain,  character,  71  ;  ileath, 
333-4  ;  marriage  negotiations 
for  Katharine  of  Aragon,  79- 
80,  89-91,  205-7,  221,  232, 
327-30  ;  Suffolk's  surrender 
desired,  234 ;  Warbeck  in 
relation  to,  120,  128,  152,  422 

Isleworth,  414 

Italian  influence  in  England, 
see  Renaissance 

Italian  Relation,  433 

Italy,  125-6,  140-1,  229,  366, 
368  ;  trade  with,  164,  177-9 

Ives,  John,  435 

James  IV.,  King  of  Scotland, 
Desmond's  alleged  relations 
with,  298 ;  invasions  of  Eng- 
land by,  38,  142-4,  152-4  ; 
league  with  Henry  VII.  and 
Maximilian,  alleged,  341  ; 
marriage,  134, 140,  145,  225-6, 
236-7,  364;  unfriendly  to 
England  (1508),  363-4;  War- 
beck  supported  by,  115,  127, 
131-2,  134-5,  142-5 
Jesters,  383-4 

Joan,     Infanta    of     Spain,     see 
Juana   (of    Spain),   Queen  of 
Castile. 
John  of  Gaunt,  2,  28 
Joseph,  jSIicliael,  147,  150 
Juan,  Infante  of  Spain,  96 
Juana    (of    Spain)     Queen     of 
Castile,    137,  206,    334,   337, 
341,  343,  345  n.,  348-52,  354, 
426-30 
Julius  II.,  Pope,  330,  353,  361-3, 

367-9 
Jury  system,  266 
Justices  of  the  peace,  265 

Katherine  of  Arairon,  79-82, 
89-91, 99  n.,  102, 204-9,  211-2, 
216-25,  232-3,  327-35,  338- 
41,  344,  350,  356-61,  370, 
388  n.,  389,  417  «.,  428-9 


Katherine  (of  France),  Queen  of 

England,  2 
Kenilworth,  63,  412-3;  Castle, 

412,  415 
Kent,  Earl  of,  148,  214 
Kent,  rising  in  (1483),  8  ;  War- 
beck  invasion,  127-8 
Kidwelly,   Morgan,  see  Morgan 

(of  Kidwelly),  .John 
Kildare,  Earl' of,  58,  112,    115, 

130,     155-6,    291-9,    301-5  ; 

Countess  of,  303 
Kilkenny,  statutes  of,  299 
King     Harry's     Hill     (Market 

Bosworth),  22 
King's  Bark,  ship,  282  n. 
Kingston,  149,  416 
Kingswood,  414 
Kinsale,  156,  293 
Kneysworth,  Thomas,  278 
Knighthood,  272 
Knoctoe,  battle  of  (1504),  304-5 
Knole,  4l:i,  415-6,  418 
Knowsley,  415 
Knyvet,  Sir  Thos.,  416  n. 

Labour, 193-5 

Labrador,  320 

Lambeth,  150,  414,  416,  418 

Lancaster,  285 

Lancaster,  duchy  of,  47 

Lancaster,  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke 

of,  see  John  of  Gaunt 
Land,  title  to,  260 
Landois,  Pierre,  11-2 
Langley,  415-9 
Langley,  Prior  of,  123 
Lanthony  Abbey,  417,  419 
Latham,  415 
Latimer,  Hugh,  306 
Lee,  Richard,  414 
Legislation,  256-69 
Leicester,  18-9,  33,  64,  73,  254, 

286,     412-3;      abbey,     412; 

records,  432-3 
Leigh,  415 
Leland's  Collectanea,  433 


446 


INDEX 


Leopards,  384 

Letter  Books  of  London,  432 

Letters  and  Papers  of  Henry  VII., 
432,  434 

Lewes,  413,  418 

Lewis, ,  6 

Libri  Anglicce  Historim  XXVII., 
312,  433 

Lichfield,  18-9,  415 

Life  of  Henry  VII.  (Bacon),  434 

Life    of  Henry   VII.  (Herbert), 
434 

Life  of  Margaret  Beaufort,  435 

LUy,  William,  306,  307  n. 

Limerick  Castle,  297 

Linacre,  Thomas,  306 

Lincoln,  53,  67,  97  ??.,  274  n.,  41 1 

Lincoln,  Bishop  of,  306 

Lincoln,  John  de  la  Pole,  Earl 
of,  61-5,67,211  n. 

Lions,  384 

Livery,  49,  246,  261,  267,  299 

Lloyd,  Thomas,  319 

Loans,  146-7,  275 

Lollard  ry,  311 

London,  34,  56,  67,  411-2,  414, 
416-8 ;  Baynard's  Castle,  see 
Baynard's  Castle  ;  Cornish 
advance  on,  149-50  ;  crime  in 
27  ;  description  of,  379  n.  ; 
Katherine  of  Aragon's  entry, 
222-3 ;  loans,  51,  146-7  ;  new 
privileges  (1478),  275  ;  panic 
in  (1487),  66  ;  plague,  194-5  ; 
riot  (1493),  119,  173;  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral.  372,  379, 
415-8;  St.  Paul's  Sch,,  307  7i.  ; 
sheriff's  election  interfered 
with,  286  ;  sweating  sickness, 
194  ;  Tower,  33,  36,  235-6, 
271, 284,  379, 384,  412,  414-9  ; 
trade,  119, 168  173, ;  Warbeck 
in,  158-9 

London,  Dr.  Hussev,  Archd.  of, 

123 
London,  Bp.  of,  34-5,  309  I 

Loudoho, ,  208  | 


Lords,  House  of,  252-3 

Loughborough,  64,  415 

Louis  XIL,  King  of  France 
(Duke  of  Orleans),  accession, 
203;  in  Brittanv,  72-3,  75, 
82  ;  English  policy,  203,  210, 
234,  339 ;  Italian  schemes, 
229,  366-7,  369 ;  niece  married 
to  King  of  Spain,  341  ;  taken 
prisoner,  77 

Louise  of  Savoy,  339 

Lovell,  Francis,  Lord,  22,  41  n., 
49,  53-5,  59,  61-3,  65 

Lovell,  Minster,  65  n.,  414,  416, 
•118 

Lovell,  Thos.,  36,  43,  45,  253 

Ludlow  Castle,  220, 225, 230, 415 

Lynn,  416 

Mabuse,  Jan,  see  Grossaert 
Maidstone,  412-7 
Maintenance,  50,  246,  261,  267, 

299 
Maitland,  Frederick,  435 
Mailing  Abbey,  411 
Malmesbury  Abbey,  310,  415-6 
I  Malshanger,  418 
I  Manchester,  415 
!  JIanuel,   Dona  Elvira,   220  n., 
331-2 

!  ,  Don,  169,  341 

;  Marcoussis,  treaty  of,  204 

Margaret    of    Angouleme,    333, 
j       339,  349 

I  Margaret,  Dowager  Duchess  of 
;  Burgundy,  58-9,  63,  116-9, 
i  125,  127,  187  «.,  204  n. 
I  Margaret  (Beaufort),  Countess  of 
'  Richmond  and  Derbv,  mother 
,  of  Henrv  VII.,  1-6, 10,  17,  29, 
:  42,  47,  63,  67,  69,  223,  306, 
386,  388-9,  435 
Margaret,  Countess  of  Richmond, 

435 
Margaret  (of  Austria^  Duchess 
of  Savoy,  170,  206,  209,  218, 
333,  340,  342,  345-55,  365  367 


INDEX 


447 


Margaret  (Tudor),  Queen  of 
Scotland,  christening,  413  n. ; 
marriage,  134,  140,  145,  225- 
6,  236-7 ;  presents  prizes  at 
tournament,  122 

Margaret,  ship,  282  n. 

Marlborough,  414 

Marney,  Henry,  44 

Marriage:<,  272 

Martyn  Abbey,  417 

Mary  (Tudor),  Princess,  333, 
344,  353,  355,  365-6 

Mary  Fortune,  ship,  282  n. 

Maximilian,  King  of  the 
Romans,  Antwerp  treaty, 
227,  233-5  ;  Breton  policy, 
73,  94, 97-100,  103  ;  character, 
71-2  ;  commercial  policv,  166 
-7,  233 ;  deserted  by  Henry 
VII.,  109-11 ;  EncrlishaUiance 
(1489),  83,  85  ;  Flemish  diffi- 
culties, 73,  78,  105,  107  ; 
French  alliance  (1489),  93-4, 
98 ;  French  alliance  (1508)  and 
League  of  Cambrai,  364-9  ; 
French  war  (1498),  202-4  ; 
Garter  conferred  on,  99,  234-5, 
418  7!.  ;  Holy  League,  125,  137 
-9  ;  marriage  scheme  for 
Margaret  of  Savov,  338,  340, 
346-7,  349,  353^;  Suffolk 
protected,  175,  226-8,  233-5, 
326  ;  Turkish  war  scheme, 
227-9,  233  ;  Warbeck  sup- 
ported, 116-21,  124,  126-7, 
129,  137-9 

Mayfield  (Staffs.),  415 

Mayfield  (Sussex),  414 

Meath,  Bp.  of,  301-2 

Medieval  and  Modem  History 
(Stubbs),  435 

Medina  del  Campo,  treaty^  of,  89- 
91,  99-100,  102,  119,  129,  181 

Membrilla,  Fuensalida  gover- 
nor of,  219,  357-61 

Memorials  of  Hen.  VII.,  431,  434 

Meno,  Pregent,  114,  118  n. 


Mercantile  system,  161-5 
Mercenaries,  63-4,  284 
Merchant  Adventurers,  173, 184- 

5,  262 
"  Merchant  of  the  Ruby,"  117 
Merchants    of    the    Staple,    see 

Staple 
Mereaith,  John  ap,  17 
Merivale  Abbey,  19,  418 
Merton  Abbey,  415 
Middle  classes,  244-5,  248,  406 
Milan,  99,  105,  125-6,  138,  196, 

229,  314,  353  n. 
Mile  End,  417 

Milford  (near  Christchurch),  16 
Milford  Haven,  16 
Militia,  284 

Minster  Lovell,see  Lovell,Min8ter 
Mohun,  Lord,  44 
Molinet,  Jean,  435 
Monasteries,  309-10,  391 
Moncontour,  92 
Money,  see  Currency 
Montford,  Sir  Simon,  123 
Montgomery,  416 
Month's  Mind  of  the  Lady  Mar- 
garet, 434 
Moor,  411 

Moor  Place  (Surrey),  414 
Mordaunt,  John,  67,  253 
More,  Sir  Thos.,  272;    Utopia, 

434 
Morgan    (of    Kidwelly),   John, 

15-6,  44 
Morlaix,  87,  98,  106  n. 
Morlev,  Lord,  92-3 
Mortlake,  419 
Morton,  John,  Bp.  of   Ely,  see 

Canterbury,     John     Morton, 

Archbp.  of 
Morton's  Dyke,  238  n. 
Morton's  Fork,  238,  276 
MuUinger,  J.  B.,  435 
Murder,  26,  257 

Namur,  343 

Nanfan,  Richard,  44,  83,  91 


448 


INDEX 


Nantes,  73,  75,  100  I 

Naples,    107,    125-6,   138,   229,  I 

366  ;  Queen  of,  328,  332,  335-   ' 

7,  339  n.,  432  : 

Naval  Accounts,  432 
Navigation  laws,  164-5,  178-9, 

181-2 
Navy,  163,  282-3  ;  bibliography, 

435 
Netherlands,   trade  with,   166- 

71,  173,  179,  184 
Netley  Abbey,  416 
NeviU,  Lord,  377 
Nevill,  family,  412  n. 
Newark,  53,  64,  412 

WilUam,  384 

Newcastle,  67,  415 

Newcastle-on-Tyne,  412 

New  Forest,  56,  383 

Newfoundland,  322-3 

Newport,  18 

Nichols,  J.  G.,  435 

Nieuport,  93 

Nobility,  24-5,  50,  245-9,  252-3 

Nordlingen,  137-8 

Norfolk,  Duke  of,  18-9,  22,  49; 

Duchess  of,  222 
Norham  Castle,  153 
Normandv,  duchv  of,  41-2,  82, 

84,  90,  95  n.,  109,  232,  329 
Northampton,  62,  413-6 
Northumberland,    Earl    of    (d. 
1489),  14,  18,  22,  54,  66,  87- 

8,  89  n.,  214,  278  n. 
Northumberland,  Duke  of,  246 
North- West  Passage,  318-9 
Norwich,  62,   311,  412-3,  416; 

bishopric,  310 
Notley,  415,  417 
Nottingham,  18,  53,  55,  64,  89, 
411-3  ;  Castle,  418 

Ody,  William,  44 
Oppenheim,  Michael,  432 
Origin  of  Commerce,  435 
Orleans,    Louis,    Duke    of,    see 
Louis  XII.,  King  of  France 


Ormond,  Sir  Jas.,  155,  291,  295- 

6,  301,  304 

Ormond,  Thos.  Butler,  Earl  of, 

44,  63,  291,  295-7 
Osbeck,  John,  see  Warbeck,  John 
Ostend,  93 
Otford,  418 
Outlaws,  26 
Oxford,  57,  306,  414 
Oxford,  Earl  of,  12-3,  21,  36,  40, 

43,  62,  64,  105, 150,  214,  246- 

7,  416  n. 

Oxford  Eeformers,  435 

Pale,  the  English  (Ireland), 
289,  299,  304 

Paris,  12 

Parliament,  bibliography,  432  ; 
general  character,  25,  37,  251- 
6,  281-2,  406;  grants,  273-4, 
276 ;  legislation,  256-69  ; 
first,  35,  45-50,  411  ;  second, 
67-8,  412  ;  third,  85-7,  96-7, 
101,  413-4  ;  fourth,  414  ; 
fifth  (obedient),  133-4,  255, 
264-5,  271,  415;  sixth,  147, 
416  ;  seventh,  325-6,  418 

Parliament,  Irish,  see  Ireland, 
Parliament 

Paston,  Sir  John,  65 

Paston  Letters,  433 

Patrick, ,  209-10 

Peche,  the  fool,  383 

Pembroke,  16;  Castle,  1-2 

Pembroke,  Jasper  Tudor,  Earl 
of,  1-3, 11,21  ;  WiU.  Herbert, 
Earl  of,  see  Herbert,  William, 
Lord. 

Perjury,  262,  265 

Perkin  Warbeck,  Story  of 
(Gairdner),  434 

Perth,  132 

Peterborough,  411 

Philip,  Archduke  (Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy, King  of  Castile),  Bur- 
gundy ruled  in  right  of,  73  ; 
Castilian  claims,  334-5,  342, 


INDEX 


449 


348-9,  427;  cliildren,  see 
Charles,  Archduke,  Eleanor  ; 
commercial  policy,  140,109-70, 
327;  corpse  carried  about,  429  ; 
death,  349  ;  embassy  to  (1488), 
83  ?i.;  in  England,  343-8, 
418  i).,  432  ;  interview  with 
Henry  VII.  (1500),  218  ;  mar- 
riage, 137  ;  peace  with  France, 
204:  Suffolk  in  relation  to, 
340,  342,  347  ;  understanding 
between  Maximilian  and 
Henry  VII.  opposed,  227 ; 
Warbeck  supported,  116-9 

Pilgrimage  of  l:>ir  Ri^-Jiard  Gv.yld- 
ford,  434  ' 

Pinkerton,  John,  434 

Pirates,  27,  165,  167,  172,  180 

Pisa,  178 

Pius  III.,  Pope,  330 

Plague,  194-5 

Plumpton,  Sir  Robert,  278 

Plumpton  Correspondence,  434 

Plunkett,  Alex.,  295 

Plymouth,  8,  222 

Pole,  Edm.  de  la,  Earl  of  Suf- 
folk, see  Suffolk  ;  John  de  la, 
Earl  of  Lincoln,  see  Lincoln  ; 
Rich,  de  la,  228,  326;  Will, 
de  la,  228 

Pollard,  A.  F.,  435 

Pontefract,  54,  412-3;  Castle, 
412 

Poole,  8,  415 

Pope,  Papacy,  96,  104-5,  125, 
127.  140-r,  258-9,  353,  361-3, 
367-9 

Porchfcster,  415,  417 

Portland,  344 

Portsmouth,  104-5  ;  dry  dock, 
283 

Portugal,  83-4,  99,  339 

Poundage,  see  Tonnage  and 
poundage 

Poynings,  Sir  Edw.,  9,  12,  43, 
i05,  130,  297-8,  300 

Poynings'  Acts,  298 


Poyntz,  Robert,  44 
Prices,  regulation  of,  193 
Printing,  313,  317 
Privy  Council,  425 
Privy  Purse  Expenses,  432 
Puebla,  Roderijio  de,  79-80,  82, 
144,    152,  199-201,  203,  207, 
209,  212.  217-20,  327.  332-3, 
340,  350,  357,  427 
Purveyance,  47,  280 

QuARR  Abbey, 417 

Rabt,  412-3 

Raiiune,  Thomas,  6 

Ealcliffie),  John.  123;  Sir  Rich., 

22  :  Robert,  123 
Reading,  414,  416,  418 
Redon,  100,  102 
Reeves,  John,  435 
Eeyent,  The,  man-of-war,  282 
Register  of  Bishop  Fox,  432 
ReHefs,  272 

Renaissance,  the,  249,  305-17 
Rennes,  9,  102-3 
Requests,  Court  of,  267-8 
Retainer,  261-2,  267 
Revenue,  see  Finance 
Rhodes,  Knights  of,  361 
Ricart's  Calendar  of  Bristol,  433 
Richard  IIL,  4,7-11.  14-21,  33, 

36,48-9,  51,  61,  114,377 
Richard,    Duke    of     York,    see 

York 
Richmond,  224,  226  n.,  338,  360, 

370,  417-9  ;  palace,  314,  389, 

417  n. 
Richmond  (co.  York),  412 

,  Edm.  Tudor,  Earl  of,  1-2 

,  Henrv  Tudor,  Earl  of,  see 

Henry  VII. 
,  Margaret,  Countess  of,  see 

Margaret  (Beaufort),  Countess 

of  Richmond  and  Derby 

,  honour  of,  2,  10-1,  47 

Richmond     Herald.     121,    126, 

431 

2  F 


450 


INDEX 


Rieux,  Marshal  de,  77,  92,  94, 

97 
Riga,  trade  with,  174-5 
Rioting,  50,  261-2,  265 
Ripon,  412 

Risley,  Sir  John,  44  n. 
Rochester,  412,  414,  416 
,   John   Fisher,   Bishop  of, 

372,  399,  434 
Rockingham,  415  ;  Castle,  412 
Rogers,  Thorold,  435 
Roses,  Wars  of  the,  23-7 
Rouen,  13 
Roussillon,  80-3,  90,  96,  99  ?i., 

110,  329 
Royston,  411 
Rutland  Papers,  433 
Rymer's  Foedera,  431 

St.  Albans,  413,  417  ;  Abbey, 

309-10,  412 
St.  Aubin,  battle  of,  77 
St.  George's-in-the-Fields,    149, 

416 
St.    John,    Elizabeth,    see    Kil- 

dare.  Countess  of 
St.  John  (jf  Jerusalem,  Prior  of, 

214 
St.  Marv  Crav,  414 
St.  Michael's  Mount,  158 
St.  Osyth,  Aljbots  of,  417  n. 
Salisbury,  148,  311,  411,  414-5 
Salisbury,  Bishop  of,  9,  36  n. 
Saltwood,  414 

Sanctuary,  26,  54-5,  66,  258-9 
Sandwich,  412,  414  ;  mayor,  127 
Savage,  Sir  John,  15-6,  21,  109, 

338  ;  Thomas,  79,  83,  91 
Savoy,    Margaret,    Duchess    of, 

see  Maigaret 
Savoy  Hospital,  392 
Saxonv,  Duke  of,  326 
Say,  William,  44  ;  Sir  Will.,  285 
Scarborough,  125,  173 
Scofield,  i).  L.,  435 
Scot,  the  fool,  383 
Scotland,  38-9,  67,   127,  131-7, 


139,  142-6,  152-5,  225-6,  353, 
363-4,  432,  434 
Scotus,  Andreas,  2 
Seebohm,  Frederick,  435 
Select  Cases  in  the  Court  of  Re- 
quests, 432 
Selling,  William,  306 
Shaftesbury,  414 
Shaunde,  Philibert  de,  Earl  of 

Bath,  sec  Bath 
Sheen,   56,    .59,    106,    158,   208, 
411-7;   Palace,    314-5;    prior 
of,  310 
Sheppy  Island,  331,  418 
Sherbourne,  Robert,  141  n. 
Sheriffs,  265 

Sheriflf's  Hutton  Castle,  33 
Ship  of  Fools,  434 
Shipping,  162-5,  283 
Shoreham,  New,  97  n. 
Shrewsbury,  18,  415 

,  Earl  of,  44 

Silk  trade,  177,  185 

Simnel,    Lambert,    58-66,    292, 

296 
Sittingbourne,  414,  416 
Skelton,  John,  313 
Slindon,  413 
Sluys,  105,  283 
Sniithfield,  burning  at,  311 
Somerset,  Duke  of,  2 
Somerset,  Sir  Chas.,  Lord  Her- 
bert, see  Herbert 
Somersham,  411 

So7ig  of  the  Lady  Bessy,  The,  434 
Sonning,  413 

Southampton,  412,  415,  417 
Southampton  metal  staple,  190 
South wark,  411 
Sovereign,  man-of-war,  282-3 
Spain,  71,  78-84,  89-91,  94,  96, 
99-100,    102,    110-1,    119-20, 
125-6,  129,  135-7,  140-1,  152, 
156,  165, 181-2,  198-201,  204- 
9,  318-9,  321,   333-5,  340-1, 
348,    366,    369-70;     see    also 
Ferdinand,  Isabella 


INDEX 


451 


Speed,  Joliii,  434 
Speen,  418 
Spice  Islands,  322 
Spies,  287,  300,  393 
Stafford,  18,  415 
Stafford,  Edw.,  Duke  of  Buck- 
ingham,    see      Buckingham 
Henry,  Duke  of  Buckingham 
see  Buckingham  ;  Henry,  2,  4 
Humphrey,  22, 53-5  ;  Thomas. 
22,  53-5  ' 
Staines,  419 
Stamford,  53,  411-2 
Stanley,    Sir    Humphrey,    150 ; 
Sir  William,  17-9,  21,  35  «., 
43,  1^ 
Stanley,   Thos.    Stanley,    Lord, 
see  Derby,  Thos.  Stanley,  Earl 
of  ' 

Staple,  merchants  of  the,    166, 

168,  262 
Star  Chamber,  260-7,  423-5 
Star  Clmmher  (Hudson,  Scofield), 

435 
Star  Chamber  Cases,  432 
Starke y,  Thomas,  434 
Stile,  John,  316,  335,  369,  429 
Stirling,  132 
Stoke    (nr.     Newark)  ;     battle 

(1487),  64-5,  394,  412 
Stoughton,  William,  36 
Stow's  Chronicle,  433 
Strange,   Geo.     Stanley,     Lord, 

17  n.,  18,  43,  ^6 
Stratford,  419 
Stubbs,  Dr.,  435 
Suffolk,  Edm.  de  la  Pole,  Earl 
of,    169,   175-6,    211,    226-8, 
231,    233-5,    317    n.,    325-7, 
339-43,    346-7,   363,  415  n. 

,  John  de  la  Pole,  Duke  of, 

68,  211  n. 
Surrey,  Tlios.  Howard,  Earl  of, 
18,'22,  44,  49,  66,  88-9. 149, 
153-4,  214,  247 
Swart    (Schwartz),  Martin,  63, 
65 


Sweating  sickness,  39-40,  194 
Sweepstake,  ship,  282  n. 
Swynford,  Katherine,  2,  28 
Symons,  Richard,  58,  65 
Syon  Abbey,  414 

Talbot,  Sir  Gilbert,  17,  21,  33, 
44,  117 

Tame  (Thame),  413 

Tamworth,  19 

Taunton,  156-7,  416 

Taxation,  273-4 

Taylor,  Jas.,  214;  John,  113, 
115 

Tewkesbury,  3,  413,  415 

Thirsk,  fight  near,  88 

Thistle  am!  the  Rose,  434 

Thomas,  Sir  Rhys  ap,  15,  16  n., 
33,  35  72.,  157 ;  Richard  ap, 
44 

Throgmorton,  Robert,  44 

Thwaites,  Sir  Thos.,  123 

Tiverton,  416 

Tonnage  and  poundage,  46,  272 

Torregiano,  Pietro,  313 

Torture,  264 

Touchet,  Jas.,  Lord  Audley, 
see  Audley 

Tournaments,  106,  382 

Trade,  see  Commerce,  and  In- 
dustry 

Tree  of  the  Commontcealth,  277, 
434 

Trevclyan  Papers.  433 

Trim,  293 

Trivisano,  Andrea,  196 

Troys,  Thomas,  44 

Tudor,  Arthur,  see  Arthur, 
Prince  of  Wales ;  Edmund, 
see  Richmond,  Edmund,  Earl 
of,  and  Edmund,  Prince ; 
Henry,  see  Henry  VII.  and 
Henry  (VIII.),  Prince  of 
Wales  ;  Jasper,  see  Pembroke, 
Jasper,  Karl  of ;  Margaret,  see 
Margaret,  Countess  of  Rich- 
mond and  Derby,  and   Mar- 


452 


INDEX 


garet,    Queen     of     Scotland  ; 

Mary,  see  Mary;  arms,  41,  385  ; 

colours,  34  n. 
Tunstall,  Sir  Richard,  43,  88 
Turks,  227,  229-30,  233,  274  n., 

3(31-3 
Tutbury,  418 

Twelve  Tudor  Statesmen,  435 
Tyrell,    Sir    Jas.,   228;    Thos., 

44 

Udal,  William,  44 
University  of  Cambridge,  435 
Urbino,  314 
Urswick,   Chris.,   9,    11,   22  «., 

35  n.,  74-5,  78,  84,  138-9 
Usury,  1 92,  262 
Utopia,  434 
Uxbridge,  414 

VAGTiANTS,  265-6 

Vale  Royal  Abbey,  415 

Valines,  11-2 

Vannes,   Ammonio,   312 ;    Pet., 

312 
Vaux,  Sir  Nicholas,  380,  416  n. 
Venice,   107,    125,    138,    196-7, 
314,  366-9  ;  trade  with,  165, 
177-9 
Vergil,      Polydor,     Archd.      of 

Wells,  .-re  Wells 
Vignolles,  Bernard  de,  123 
Visitation  of  Norivich,  432 
Visitation  of  Southwell,  432 
Vita  Henrici  Septimi,  433 
Voyages   of  discovery,  see   Dis- 
covery, voyages  of 

Wages,  regulation  of,  193 

Wales,  17-8,  80,  204 

,     Arthur,    Prince    of,    see 

Arthur ;    Edward,  Prince  of, 

see    Edward;     Henry,    Prince 

of,  see  Henry 
Wallingford,  416 
Walsingham,     62,     412,     416; 

priory,  310 


Walter,  alius  Attwater,  John, 
115,  131,  155-6,214 

Waltham,  383 

Waltham,  Bishops',  415,  417 

Wandsworth,  419 

Wanstead,  416-9 

Warbeck,  John,  114;  Perkin, 
1 12-60, 208, 212-5, 298, 300-1 , 
305,  420-2 

Ward,  Thomas,  213 

Wardships,  272,  276 

Ware,  411 

Ware, ,  435 

Warham,  Will.,  Archbp.  of  Can- 
terbury, see  Canterbury 

Warrington,  415 

Warwick,  412,  414 

,  Edw.,  Earl  of,  30-1,  33-4, 

57-66,  1 12,  209,  212-7 

,  Richard  Nevil,  Earl  of,  2.5 

Hasely,  Dean  of,  2 

Waterford,  63,  130-1,  156, 
292-3,  300,  303 

Waterford,  History  of,  435 

Weights  and  measures,  191-2 

Wells,  148,  414,  416 

,    Polydor    Vergil,    Archd. 

of,  312,  433 

Wells,  John,  Lord,  9 

West,  Nicholas,  234 

Westminster,  411-9;  alms- 
houses, 392  n. 

Westminster  Abbey,  altar  at 
Henry  VII.'s  tomb,  392; 
chantrv  priests,  391  n.  ;  coro- 
nation" of  Henry  VII.,  40-2  : 
coronation  of  Eliz.  of  York, 
69;  funeral  of  Eliz,  of  York, 
236;  funeral  of  Henry  VII., 
372-3 ;  Henry  VII.'s  Chapel, 
238  H.,  315,  371 

Westminster  Hall,  124,  224 

White  Moors,  19 

Whitsand  Bay,  156 

Wight,  Isle  of,  76,415,417 

Wilford,  Ralph,  209-10 

Wilkins', ,  432 


INDEX 


453 


AVillougliby,  Sir  Richard,  33 
Willoughbv     de    Broke,    Lord, 

43,  91,  9S,  153,  157 
Winchcombe,  414 
Winchester,  5G-7,  148,  385,  411, 

417,419 

,  Bp.  of,  306,  338,  418  n. 

Windsor,  141,  146,  383,  411-9  ; 

Castle,  271,  344;  Forest,  89, 

413  71, ;    St.  George's  Chapel, 

238  n.,  315,  392 
Wine,  trade  in,  164,  177-9 
Wingtield,  John,  44,  316,  367 
Woad,  trade  in,  164 
Woking,  413,  418-9  ;  manor  of, 

413 
Wollaston,  415 
Wolsey,  Thomas,  364-5 
Woodstock,  149,  206,  353,  383, 

413-9  ;  manor  of,  412-3 
Woodville,  Sir  Edw.,  9,  12,  76-7 
Wool   trade,   46,    lO.j-8,   177-9, 

182-3,  186,  434 
Worcester,  54-5,  231,  411,  415 
Worcester,      Giovanni     (John), 

Gigli,   Bp.   of,  85,    104,   220, 

312 


Worde,  Wynkyu  de,  317 
Worsely,  William,  Dean  of  St. 

Paul's,  123 
Wyatt,  Henry,  44 
Wycombe,  414-5 
Wyndham,  Sir  John,  228 

Yarmouth,  Gt.,  97  n.,  274  n. 

Year  Bookfi  of  Henry  VIL,  432 

Yeoman  of  the  Guard,  12,  284 

York,  29,  38, 52-5,  67,  S7-8,  286, 
371,  392  «.,  411-3 

,    Cecily,   Duchess    of,   47  : 

Henry,  Duke  of,  see  Henry 
(VI XL),  Prince  of  Wales; 
Richard,  Duke  of  (father  of 
Edw.  IV.),  291;  Richard, 
Duke  of  (son  of  Edw.  IV.),  58, 
114,  116-7,  121,  422  ;  see  also 
Simnel,  Warbeck 

York  Mecords,  432 

Yorkshire,  risings  in,  53-4,  87-8, 
274 

ZoucHE,  Lord,  49 
Zurita,  Geronimo,  434 


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